At least 38 people have died and 10 people are missing in central Vietnam after typhoon Ketsana hit the region Tuesday afternoon, according to the national flood and storm control committee.

Ketsana, which strengthened from a tropical low on Saturday and killed at least 246 people in the Philippines before heading for Vietnam, has since weakened into a low.

The central provinces had managed to evacuate over 370,000 residents to safe areas before the storm touched land, local authorities said.

“Different from other storms that often cause heavy rains after their landfall, the ninth storm [to hit the East Sea this year] has caused much heavier rains over a large area before and during its arrival in Quang Nam – Quang Ngai provinces,” said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc.

“[This] has caused especially severe flooding and some rivers have risen to record levels,” Hoc said.

In fact, with the rainfall measuring up to 1,300 millimeters in some localities like Thua Thien – Hue city on Tuesday evening, water levels in the Tra Bong River reached 5.58 meters, 0.19 meters higher than the historic flood peak in 1964.

Floods on the Po Ko River in Kon Tum province also made a record at 5.56 meters, 2.26 meters higher than the record set in 2006, according to Bui Minh Tang –director of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF).

The flood waters will continue rising on Wednesday, NCHMF said on its website yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, power blackouts and severed traffic had isolated some localities like Thua Thien Hue, Quang Ngai, and Quang Nam.

Over 2,000 people on Nhon Chau Island in Binh Dinh Province were also totally cutoff from the mainland.

“The greatest challenge is not only cooking supply but also the spread and treatment of diseases,” said Ngo Van Quy, chairman of Nhon Chau People’s Committee said.

“Difficult births and appendicitis can be fatal if patients aren’t transferred to the mainland [for proper treatment]. Local people have to wait for at least another three days before accessing the mainland, in case the weather is good.”

According to the national forecast center, the fierce storm weakened into tropical low and reached the south of Laos with winds blowing at 31-96 kilometers per hour on Tuesday night.

The low will reach the northwest of Thailand on Wednesday, it added.

However, the center warned that the low pressure would still affect Vietnam, causing torrential rains, flash floods and landslides in the central and central highlands provinces.

On Tuesday afternoon Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy director of Saigon Railway Station, said the storm has caused them to cancel many trains from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to central provinces.

The cancellation and shortening of train routes will continue on Wednesday, he added.

Also on Tuesday, national carrier Vietnam Airlines announced it would resume flights from Hanoi and HCMC to the central region from Wednesday at 7 a.m., and add more flights on the routes.

Source: Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre