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Tropical storm kills four in Vietnam

At least four people were killed and two were missing after Tropical Storm Mirinae struck central Vietnam, national storm and flood authorities said yesterday.

The storm brought winds of 133kph and dumped some 600mm of rain when it came ashore on 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 centers 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.

Some reports indicated the rains had spoiled the drying of coffee in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. But a storm official in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak said the coffee industry had not been much affected.

Towns and villages were flooded by up to 1.2m of water.

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

The storm had reportedly weakened to a tropical low-pressure zone by yesterday morning, and was heading west with wind speeds down to between 20kph and 25kph.

Vietnam evacuated more than 27,000 people from storm-affected areas to evade landslides. Authorities had warned 18,000 fishing boats carrying 104,000 fishermen to take shelter in advance 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 were lucky to survive after their boat was hit by a tornado on 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.
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