A typhoon that left dozens dead in the Philippines and killed two in southern China wrecked several Vietnamese ships yesterday while churning toward northern Vietnam as a strong tropical storm.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said several Vietnamese ships had been wrecked off islands in the South China Sea. It cited Hainan’s maritime affairs bureau as saying there was no word on whether anyone had died and rescue efforts were under way. A man answering the telephone in the maritime bureau said he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Typhoon Conson, China’s first typhoon of the year, struck the southern resort island of Hainan on Friday. Xinhua said a falling billboard killed a motorcycle rider, and another toppled and buried a security guard under debris.
By 8am yesterday, Hainan’s meteorological station said Conson was moving northwest over open water again and had downshifted into a strong tropical storm. It was expected to hit northern Vietnam yesterday afternoon or evening and was moving at 20kph.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged authorities in 23 northern and central provinces to ban ships and fishing trawlers from sailing.
Authorities were planning to evacuate some 137,000 people from high-risk areas in Vietnam’s northern province of Thanh Hoa, disaster official Nguyen Trong Hai said.
“People in coastal villages and places of high risks of flash floods and landslides in 11 mountainous districts have been told to be ready for evacuation at any time,” Hai said.
The national floods and storms control department said another 10,000 were being evacuated in three other northern provinces. An official in the northern port city of Hai Phong said 19,000 people from coastal districts were being moved, as well as 1,200 people on the island of Cat Hai.
The storm left a mess in Hainan, China’s version of Hawaii.
Provincial officials said 79 flights were canceled on Friday night in the resort city of Sanya, but flights resumed yesterday.
The storm killed 53 people and left 85 missing in the Philippines. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III scolded the weather bureau for failing to predict that Conson would hit Manila, which left government agencies unprepared for the onslaught.
As the storm moved northwest, the southern areas of China’s manufacturing-heavy Guangdong Province and the neighboring Guangxi region were expected to see torrential rains. But Conson was not expected to hit areas in China already battered by weeks of flooding.
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