Typhoon Kalmaegi which hit Vietnam on Thursday left five people dead in this country after killing at least 188 people in the Philippines, according to official reports on Friday.
Kalmaegi rapidly moved inland and weakened, becoming a tropical storm. However, heavy rains are still forecast over a large part of Vietnam’s central coast, the national meteorological office has warned.
In the streets along Quy Nhon beach in Gia Lai, AFP journalists on Friday saw rescue workers, soldiers and residents clearing uprooted trees, debris and tin roofs blown away by the wind overnight.
“It was the second time I witnessed such a typhoon. The first one was about ten years ago, but it was not as violent,” Tran Ngo An, 64, told AFP.
A total of five deaths were recorded in the provinces of Quang Ngai, Gia Lai and Dak Lak, in the center of the country, announced the Ministry of the Environment, which also reported seven injured.
At least 57 houses collapsed in Gia Lai and the neighboring province of Dak Lak and nearly 3,000 others saw their roofs blown away or damaged, said this source, according to whom 11 boats also sank. In Gia Lai, a bridge collapsed due to flooding.
“The roof of my house was blown away,” Nguyen Van Tam, a 42-year-old fisherman from this province, where the storm made landfall with sustained winds reaching 149 km/h, told AFP, according to the ministry.
“We are all safe and sound, (but) the typhoon was really terrible, so many trees fell,” he added, saying he was relieved that his boat was intact.
New typhoon in sight
The state-owned power company said 1.6 million customers lost power. Service was restored for a third of them Friday morning, according to this source.
Vietnam is typically hit by ten typhoons or storms per year, but Kalmaegi is the 13the of 2025.
Global warming caused by human activity is making extreme weather events more frequent, deadlier and more destructive, scientists say.
Kalmaegi arrived from the Philippines, where it caused heavy flooding in the center of the country in recent days, particularly in the heavily populated province of Cebu. The national toll stands at at least 188 dead and 135 missing.
After this Kalmaegithe deadliest typhoon of the year for the country, the Philippines is worried about the arrival in the coming days of Fung Wong, which has “the potential to become even more powerful,” President Ferdinand Marcos said on Thursday.
In Vietnam, before Kalmaeginatural disasters had already left 279 dead or missing this year and caused more than two billion dollars in damage, according to the country’s national statistics office.
