While Saigoneers were busy enjoying an eventless weekend in the south, residents in central and northern Vietnam were having one of the worst times of their lives after a powerful typhoon passed through the country last Friday.
The storm began as a tropical depression that formed in the Pacific Ocean. It strengthened into typhoon Doksuri earlier last week and weather forecast agencies quickly realized that the storm was going to be the strongest Vietnam has experienced in 10 years.
Video via VnExpress.
“There has never been a storm of level nine or 11 that lasted for eight hours straight like this one, causing quite large damage,” Minister of Agriculture Nguyen Xuan Cuong told national Vietnam Television.
VnExpress reports that during the stormy weekend, Doksuri killed eight and injured many from Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Binh, Thua Thien-Hue and Ha Tinh provinces. The grade-12 typhoon also destroyed 33 houses while tearing off the roof of 120,000 others. The deluge of floodwater also inundated some 6,200 homesteads.
Doksuri also knocked over many utility posts in the aforementioned provinces and even fell a 100-meter-tall television tower in Ha Tinh (shown above). This lead to widespread blackouts in central Vietnam from Friday until Saturday morning.
According to Tuoi Tre, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces suffered the most damage from the storm. In Nghe An alone, Doksuri incurred VND700 billion in loss.
During the stormy period, many might have noticed that Facebook also enabled its Safety Check and Community Help features for users living in central Vietnam.
“Up to 79,000 people in high-risk areas of Vietnam, particularly in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces, have evacuated, and up to 210,000 were planned to be evacuated,” Facebook said in a publics post regarding the storm.
Photos via Tuoi Tre.
Photos via Zing.
Photos via VnExpress.
[Top photo via VnExpress]
