At least 10 people have been killed and many displaced after Tropical Storm Bebinca swept through north-central Vietnam.
The tropical storm weakened to a tropical depression after it made landfall in Thanh Hoa Province on Friday morning; yet, the torrential rains it brought caused flooding and landslides throughout the region.
Nghe An Province was the worst affected in terms of casualties, with at least 6 reported to have lost their lives as of Sunday evening, while two casualties were reported in both Thanh Hoa and Son La, VnExpress reports.
Nghe An experienced rainfall levels between 180 to 250 millimeters since Thursday night, leaving numerous mountain villages underwater, while also closing national highways.
The beginning of the new school term has also been delayed after entire classrooms were submerged and equipment damaged. Local educators and students are forced to wait until the floods recede for classes to begin again.
There had been fears of the storm hitting Hanoi, but the storm’s diameter was so narrow that the capital received relatively minor amounts of rainfall.
This is the fourth tropical storm to form in the East Sea this year. Only last month, Tropical Storm Son Tinh devastated areas of northern Vietnam, killing at least 27 people and causing widespread flooding.
In 2017, 16 tropical storms hit Vietnam, leaving 389 people dead or missing, injuring 668 others. The hardest hit areas were generally in northern and central regions.
[Photo via Washington Post]
