Typhoon Kalmaegi brings destruction to Vietnam as death toll nears 200 in Philippines

HANOI - At least five people died in Vietnam after Typhoon Kalmaegi pummelled coastal regions with destructive winds and heavy rain, officials said on Nov 7 following the storm’s

deadly passage through the Philippines,

where it killed at least 188 people.

The storm made landfall in central Vietnam late on Nov 6, uprooting trees, damaging homes and triggering power outages, before weakening as it moved inland.

The authorities warned of continuing heavy rainfall of up to 200mm in central provinces from Thanh Hoa to Quang Tri, and said rising river levels from Hue to Dak Lak could trigger flooding and landslides.

In Gia Lai province, which bore the brunt of the typhoon, shrimp farm owner Nguyen Dinh Sa reported catastrophic losses.

“I went to check them every hour yesterday until evening. I had done everything but could not save them,” Mr Sa, 26, said, lamenting the destruction of around six tonnes of shrimp.

“All my investments are gone. I am so desperate at the moment,” he added.

His two-storey warehouse, used for storing shrimp feed, was briefly submerged due to 7m-high waves and strong winds, leading to an estimated loss of around 1 billion dong (S$49,500).

The typhoon left a trail of destruction along the coast, toppling trees, scattering shattered glass and roofing sheets, with residents gathering around generators to recharge their phones.

Vietnam’s disaster management agency reported seven injuries and damage to approximately 2,800 homes. Power outages affected about 1.3 million people, it said.

State-run Vietnam News Agency reported damage to railway infrastructure in Quang Ngai province.

The government mobilised more than 268,000 soldiers for search-and-rescue operations and issued warnings about potential flooding that could impact agriculture in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s

main coffee-growing region

.

In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is expected to visit affected areas on Nov 7 to assess the damage and oversee recovery efforts, with officials saying 135 people remained missing and another 96 had been injured.

“We are very, very sorry,” he told provincial officials .“Most of the victims were carried away by the rushing waters, the sheer volume and speed of the flash floods.”

Kalmaegi is the 13th typhoon to form in the South China Sea in 2025.

Vietnam and the Philippines are highly vulnerable to tropical storms and typhoons due to their locations along the Pacific typhoon belt, regularly experiencing damage and casualties during peak storm seasons.

The Philippines’ civil aviation regulator has placed all area centres and airport operations under heightened alert in preparation for another typhoon, Fung-wong, which is forecast to intensify into a super typhoon before making landfall in the northern Philippines on the evening of Nov 9 or early morning of Nov 10. REUTERS