Nine dead, 10 injured in wake of Typhoon Kalmaegi

Photo: VOV

Six men were buried and five others were injured in northern mountainous Lang Son Province's Keo Kham Village when a landslide triggered by the typhoon hit the shed where they were sleeping. The victims were porters for Xuan Cuong Co Ltd.

Local authorities mobilized soldiers to deal with the situation. The injured victims were taken to the Dong Dang General Health Clinic.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the victims hired the shed from a local resident named Au Moc Ky. Authorized agencies disciplined Ky many times for building the shed in a dangerous area, but he ignored their warnings.

A five-year-old girl died when her house in Cao Loc District collapsed in the storm. Meanwhile, a nine-year-old girl in Binh Gia District was swept away by a flood.

In central Nghe An Province, a 49-year-old woman was swept away by a flood while returning home on Tuesday afternoon, while her husband was injured. A 32-year-old fisherman was also injured when the anchor line of his fishing boat was cut as he sought to avoid the storm in Hoang Mai Town.

In northern Quang Ninh Province, the storm caused about VND20 billion (US$944,000) worth of damages when it made landfall on Tuesday night, according to the provincial Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control. The storm destroyed over 5,000 ha of crops, blew away the roofs of 147 houses and damaged 20 electric poles. No casualties were reported.

In northern Haiphong City, the anchor line of a fishing vessel moored off Cat Ba Island was cut during the storm, injuring a fisherman, according to the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control. Border soldiers took the man to hospital and towed the drifting fishing vessel to the mainland.

In northern mountainous Bac Kan Province, a landslide caused about 8,000 cubic meters of soil to block a 20-metre section of a provincial road through Cho Don District. The storm also blew away the roofs of 93 houses, inundated 21 others and damaged 225ha of crops.

The National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting said that heavy rain triggered by the typhoon raised water levels between three and six meters in the Hong (Red)–Thai Binh river system, putting the Cau, Lo, Luc Nam, Thao and Thuong river areas on high alert.

By 7am on September 17, the storm had weakened into a tropical low-pressure system./VOV./.