Storm leaves 14 dead in Vietnam (Roundup)

Nov 3, 2009, 10:44 GMT

   Hanoi - The death toll from tropical storm Mirinae in central Vietnam reached at least 14, local media reported Tuesday.

   The news website VietnamNet reported that several towns in Phu Yen and Quang Ngai provinces had been submerged by overflowing rivers, with streets flooded up to 1.2 metres of water.

   The newspaper Thanh Nien reported the death toll in Phu Yen alone had hit 13. Casualty figures had not yet been confirmed by national authorities.

   The storm brought winds of 133 kilometres per hour (kph) and dumped up to 600 millimetres of rain when it came ashore Monday morning in the central provinces of Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai and Khanh Hoa.

   Mirinae destroyed more than 150 houses, and the roofs of several schools and health centres were blown away.

   Vietnam's Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control said 27 fishing boats were sunk at wharfs.

   More than 900 hectares of rice and 830 hectares of vegetables were destroyed or flooded, officials said.

Vietnam Airlines said it cancelled 34 flights to and from the central region on Monday, affecting about 2,000 passengers.

   The storm had reportedly weakened to a tropical low pressure zone by Tuesday morning, and was heading west as its winds lost force.

   Vietnam evacuated more than 27,000 people from storm-affected areas to avoid landslides. Authorities had warned 18,000 fishing boats carrying 104,000 fishermen to take shelter ahead of the storm.

   Mirinae was rated as a typhoon when it struck the Philippines over the weekend, killing at least 19 people.

   Elsewhere in Vietnam, six forest workers were reported drowned and 13 survived after their boat was hit by a tornado Monday in the Gulf of Tonkin. The workers were on their way to plant trees on an island off the northern province of Quang Ninh.

   Authorities said losses in Vietnam were low because residents were still cautious after the experience of Typhoon Ketsana in September.

   Ketsana killed at least 246 people in the Philippines and 172 in Vietnam, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in each country.