Five dead, 37 missing in central Vietnam after tropical storm

Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
Published: Monday September 25, 2006

Hanoi- Five people have been reported dead and 37 were missing after a tropical storm lashed the central Vietnamese coast, officials said Tuesday. Flooding caused by heavy rains from the storms killed most of the five victims, including two in central Quang Binh province and one each in Ha Tinh and Quang Nam provinces, officials said.

Most of the people reported missing were fishermen from Nghe An province who did not make it to shore ahead of the storm, said Ha Huy Thong, head of the provincial flood and storm department.

"Five fishing boats with about 35 fishermen still remain missing," Thong said. "We are searching for them."

One fishermen drowned off Nghe An when his boat capsized Monday on its way to shore, he said, but rescuers were able to pull five of his shipmates out of the water alive.

Rescuers and military units throughout central Vietnam remained on alert Tuesday even though the rain had passed through the coastal areas.

"In the mountainous areas, it is still raining heavily," Thong said. "We have to watch out for landslides and flash floods in those areas."

The storm, which hit at about 3 p.m. Monday, had wind speeds of up to 74 kilometres per hour and had moved quickly from a tropical depression to a storm close to Vietnamese waters, local weather forecasters said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung sent an "urgent message" Monday to seven central provinces to call boats ashore and prepare disaster units for the first tropical storm to directly hit Vietnam's coast this year. Four other storms have brushed past.

Vietnam's storm-response system was caught off guard in May when Typhoon Chanchu swept away more than 200 Vietnamese fishermen working offshore who had not been warned.

The deaths prompted calls for a more vigorous warning system.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa