Vietnam's typhoon season, which intensified last month, has left devastation in its wake, but the worst may be yet to come as the South-east Asian country braces itself for Typhoon Goni this week.
Popular heritage sites in Vietnam such as Hue and Hoi An are among the casualties of Vietnam's typhoon season.
Typhoon Molave, one of the worst major storms to hit Vietnam in the past 20 years, has left about 40 people dead and many others injured or missing since it landed last Wednesday, Reuters reported last Friday.
Fallen trees blocked traffic in the streets of Hoi An, a Unesco heritage site, while uprooted trees ripped electric wires from their posts.
Vietnam has been hammered by storms, heavy rain and floods since early last month, with over a million people affected and more than 114 killed.
Its central coast has been devastated by widespread flooding and hundreds of thousands of houses have been submerged in water, The New York Times reported last Wednesday.
On Oct 13, state-run news outlet VnExpress posted pictures on its website of residents in Hue city donning rain gear and helmets and rowing down submerged roads in boats after torrential downpours.
Hue Imperial Citadel, also a Unesco heritage site, was shown in the same report to be inundated by up to 60cm of water.
News outlet Vietnam Insider reported on Oct 8 that the downpours started on Oct 6.
Hoi An and Hue Imperial Citadel are located respectively in neighbouring coastal provinces Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue.
Earlier last month, two landslides - the result of floods - killed at least 33 people, most of them military staff, as one of the landslides levelled a soldiers' barracks, according to the Vietnamese government.
Yet, darker clouds loom on the horizon for the fast-growing Asean nation, which has a coastline of 3,260km.
Typhoon Goni, more devastating than Typhoon Molave and now wreaking havoc in the Philippines, is set to hit Vietnam this week as it moves westwards.
Weather forecasters predict that the storm will cross the South China Sea and hit central Vietnam this week.
Mr Hoang Phuc Lam, deputy director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology and Forecasting, told VnExpress: "The storm is likely to affect the central region next week. When entering the East Sea (the South China Sea), the storm will combine with a cold spell and the situation will be complicated."
Meanwhile, the Singapore Red Cross said it would contribute S$50,000 to Philippine Red Cross to support its disaster relief efforts for Typhoon Goni.
That is on top of the food and non-food relief items such as blankets and mosquito nets worth US$75,000 (S$102,458) that the organisation had earlier contributed to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Mr Benjamin William, Secretary-General and CEO of Singapore Red Cross, said, "The successive typhoons and heavy rains have exacerbated the already-challenging situation caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The situation is expected to worsen in the coming weeks and we must work together to prevent this humanitarian crisis from escalating further."
The organisation is also helping the affected areas with short-term recovery projects such as the rehabilitation of latrines, and livelihood support for the victims.
The Singapore Red Cross has activated its "Restoring Family Links" (RFL) service to assist Singaporeans and others to locate their immediate family members who may have been affected by the disaster with whom they have difficulty in contacting. Please contact them at rfl@redcross.sg for assistance.
If you wish to donate towards humanitarian aid for displaced survivors, or recovery and resilience efforts, you may make an online donation at www.redcross.give.asia/seafloods2020 Or via PayNow to UEN S86CC0370EGEN (indicate "Southeast Asia Floods 2020" in the remarks).
