China, Vietnam evacuate thousands as storm strikes
Pastor Dale Morgan
China, Vietnam evacuate thousands as storm strikes*
03 Oct 2007 14:25:39 GMT
Source: Reuters
HANOI, Oct 3 (Reuters) - China and Vietnam evacuated hundreds of
thousands of people from low-lying coastal areas on Wednesday as Typhoon
Lekima lashed the region with torrential rains and heavy winds.
The storm passed over the central Vietnam province of Quang Binh on
Wednesday night and blew westward toward Laos, officials said. They said
the storm hit relatively under-populated areas but they would not know
the extent of damage until Thursday.
The typhoon made landfall late on Tuesday near China's beach resort of
Sanya, on the southern tip of tropical Hainan island, trapping tourists
and forcing the evacuation of 225,000 people.
Vietnam had moved hundreds of thousands of children and the elderly to
higher ground.
More than 20,000 fishing boats were ordered back to port as the storm
shut down almost all tourist attractions in Sanya during what should
have been a peak national holiday week.
Lekima -- the Vietnamese name of a fruit -- carried winds of up to 120
kph (75 mph) from the east. Heavy rains fell in the central provinces of
Ha Tinh and Nghe An.
More than 3,000 passengers and some 1,200 cars were stranded in Hainan
on Tuesday as ferries linking the island province with the Chinese
mainland were suspended because of the typhoon.
Vietnamese soldiers and disaster officials helped move children and the
elderly to school compounds in Thanh Hoa, 150 km (90 miles) south of
Hanoi, while fishing boats dropped anchor in sheltered rivers, a Reuters
reporter travelling in the region said.
The government also warned of landslides and flash floods in the central
provinces.
The storm, which killed five people in the Philippines at the weekend,
will not hurt coffee and rice crops or crude oil production, Vietnam's
key export products, which all lie hundreds miles further to the south.
Vietnam faces up to 10 storms a year and Lekima is the fifth in 2007.
Another could be on the way.
Tropical storm Krosa evolved into a typhoon on the west Pacific on
Wednesday and is expected to hit Taiwan and China's east coast over the
next few days.
The mid-strength typhoon will reach the east coast of Taiwan on
Saturday, the island's Central Weather Bureau said on its website
(http://www.cwb.gov.tw/).