meerkat1
27.09.05, 17:35
Po spustoszeniu chinskiej prowincji Hainan (co najmniej 20ty zabitych)- kolej
na Wietnam.
A powerful typhoon has made landfall in northern Vietnam, forcing hundreds of
thousands of people to evacuate inland.
Typhoon Damrey, which left 16 people dead on China's island province of
Hainan, brought torrential rain and 100km/h (60mph) winds.
It destroyed some protective dykes in Vietnam's Thanh Hoa and neighbouring
Nam Dinh provinces, officials said.
"The priority is to evacuate people in danger and then to reinforce dykes,"
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said.
Nearly 300,000 people were moved from the Vietnamese coast before the typhoon
hit on Tuesday morning, one of the largest such operations ever undertaken.
Sea surges
It is not yet clear how much damage Damrey - which means elephant in Khmer -
has done, but local officials warned that it was the most powerful to hit
northern Vietnam in several years.
In pictures: Typhoon Damrey
State media said thousands of homes had been flooded after a network of dykes
along the coast was breached. Nine people have been reported injured.
An official in Nam Dinh province told Reuters news agency that 2km of sea
dykes had been damaged in his area alone.
Elsewhere there were reports of trees and power lines knocked down, roofs
blown off and powerful sea surges up to 15ft (4.5m) high, made worse by high
tides.
