Covering a large area and accompanied by severe flooding, Ketsana caused the highest losses in central Vietnam of any storm thus far, said scientists.

Flood in the central Vietnam caused by typhoon Ketsana.

Storm specialists like Vu Anh Tuan from the National Centre for Hydrometeorology Forecasting stated that Ketsana was as powerful as Xangsane, but differed in a number of significant ways.

Xangsane hit Danang for just two hours while Ketsana swept over many central provinces over a 12 hour period.

Ketsana’s rainfall was also much heavier than Xangsane’s, with 914mm in Quang Ngai from September 28-30, 884mm in Thua Thien– Hue city and 200-400mm on average in Quang Tri, Quang Ngai, Gia Lai and Kon Tum. Xangsane’s rainfall was 200-300mm, so floods were not very high.

The devastation was also higher, said Nguyen Xuan Dieu from the Central Steering Board for Flood and Storm Control, because Ketsana harmed many more provinces in the central region.

“This typhoon even caused losses to Cambodia, whose authorities asked Vietnam to rescue over 500 Cambodian people,” Dieu reported.

The number of deaths due to Ketsana, a level 13 typhoon, is also higher than during Xangsane, a level 12-13 storm. By October 4^th, at least 163 people were reported dead, compared with 72 from Xangsane.

“In Xangsane, people mainly died because of houses collapsing or boats sinking, while most of the victims of Ketsana were killed by floods,” Dieu added.

As of October 3, damages caused by Typhoon Ketsana were estimated at nearly 12 trillion dong, 2 trillion dong more than Xangsane.

Xangsane had been labeled as the strongest typhoon to ever hit central Vietnam and reversed Danang’s development by ten years, experts concluded. There were 26 deaths in Danang, along with nearly 10,000 collapsed houses and 73,000 buildings without roofs.

VietNamNet/VNE