The rooftops of around 100 houses in Trang Viet Commune, Me Linh District were ripped off during a tornado that came through the area at 11.20am, August 25.

Trung in his damaged house.

A 4-5 minute tornado swept away a total of 109 rooftops and injured seven people. Two are now in a local hospital for treatment. All were hit in the head by flying construction material. Many fences and fruit trees were also blown off.

Many locals said that it was the strongest tornado they had ever seen. The wind pulled out closed doors and windows and blew tiles 20-30 meters up in the sky.

Standing in front of his no-roof house, farmer Tran Van Trung said: “We were very lucky that we (he and his wife) took our daughter out of the house in time, otherwise…”

After lunch, Trung’s family was sitting on their only bed when the tornado came. They just ran out from the house when a wall collapsed on their bed. Looking around, he saw all the houses in his neighborhood looked like his and had no rooftops. They ran to a neighboring house with a cement roof for shelter. Their daughter was so scared she fainted.

Soldiers were sent to the site to assist locals with re-roofing their houses. The local authorities granted 3 million dong each to three families with completely collapsed houses.

PV