Storm leaves four dead in Vietnam

Hanoi - At least four people have been killed and two were missing after Tropical Storm Mirinae struck central Vietnam, national storm and flood authorities said Tuesday. The storm brought winds of 133 kilometres per hour (kph) and dumped some 600 millimeters of rain when it came ashore Monday morning in the central provinces of Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai and Khanh Hoa. Mirinae destroyed over 150 houses, and the roofs of several schools and health centres were blown away. Vietnam's Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control said 27 fishing boats were sunk at wharfs. More than 900 hectares of rice and 830 hectares of vegetables were destroyed or flooded. Some reports indicated the rains had spoiled the drying of coffee in Vietnam's Central Highlands. But a storm official in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak said the coffee industry had not been much affected. Towns and villages were flooded by up to 1.2 metres of water. Vietnam Airlines said it cancelled 34 flights to and from central Vietnam on Monday, affecting about 2,000 passengers. The storm had reportedly weakened to a tropical low pressure zone by Tuesday morning, and was heading west with wind speeds down to 20-25 kph. Vietnam evacuated over 27,000 people from storm-affected areas to evade landslides. Authorities had warned 18,000 fishing boats carrying 104,000 fishermen to take shelter in advance of the storm. Mirinae was rated as a typhoon when it struck the Philippines over the weekend, killing at least 19 people. Elsewhere in Vietnam, six forest workers were reported drowned and 13 were lucky to survive after their boat was hit by a tornado Monday in the Gulf of Tonkin. The workers were on their way to plant trees on an island off the northern province of Quang Ninh. Authorities said losses in Vietnam were low because residents were still cautious after the experience of Typhoon Ketsana in September. Ketsana killed at least 246 people in the Philippines and 172 in Vietnam, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in each country.