Vietnam’s central region faces more devastation with 40 dead from floods and Typhoon Kalmaegi approaching, threatening further destruction.
HANOI: The death toll from a week of severe flooding and record rainfall in central Vietnam has climbed to 40, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Disaster management officials reported six people remain missing across Hue, Da Nang, Lam Dong and Quang Tri provinces.
Central Vietnam has experienced unprecedented rainfall, with one 24-hour period recording up to 1.7 metres of precipitation.
Torrential rains have transformed streets into canals, burst riverbanks and flooded some of the country’s most popular historic sites.
The region now faces another threat as Typhoon Kalmaegi approaches the already battered coastline.
Vietnam’s national weather bureau predicts the typhoon will make landfall in the early hours of Friday morning.
The storm could hit Vietnam’s coast with winds reaching 166 kilometres per hour as it approaches on Thursday.
Typhoon Kalmaegi is currently affecting the Philippines, where it has killed at least two people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
The disaster management agency reported nearly 80,000 houses remain flooded across central Vietnam.
More than 10,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed and over 68,000 cattle killed by the flooding.
Some remote areas remain isolated due to road-blocking landslides from the past week’s extreme weather.
Vietnam typically experiences ten typhoons or tropical storms annually, but Typhoon Kalmaegi will be the 13th of 2025.
Scientific evidence indicates human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and destructive in the region.
The country’s central belt remains highly vulnerable to heavy rains between June and September each year. – AFP
