Typhoon Kai-Tak Toll Hits 20 in Vietnam
Date: 04-Oct-05
Country: VIETNAM
The national weather centre said 720 mm (28 in) of rain fell on Quang Nam province, triggering flash floods and killing eight people before Kai-Tak, named after Hong Kong's old airport, moved north and weakened into a low pressure system.
A 49-year-old Filipino swept away at the Bong Mieu gold mine in Quang Nam on Tuesday remained missing, a company official said.
"We don't know if he is still alive, but we are still looking for him," said the official at the mine owned by Canada's Olympus Pacific Minerals.
Workers were clearing hundreds of trees blown across roads by strong winds, and electricity supply was restored on Wednesday in Danang, 760 km (470 miles) south of Hanoi.
Chinese President Hu Jintao cut short his Vietnam visit and left on Wednesday, having cancelled a trip to Danang.
Seven people died in Quang Ngai province, four drowned in Thua Thien-Hue and one was killed by a fallen tree in Danang.
The low pressure system moved northward along the coastline off the northern province of Thanh Hoa and disappeared on Wednesday night, but heavy rains hit 10 central provinces, the weather centre said in its last report on the typhoon.
The government has ordered 450 tonnes of rice from national reserves to help people in the central region, where the first groups of more than 120,000 people evacuated from the typhoon started returning home on Thursday.
Floods killed 29 people in the same area late last month.
Typhoon Kai-Tak, the eighth to have hit Vietnam this year, did not affect its key coffee and rice growing regions or the crude oil production, which are located further to the south.
With a long coastline facing the South China Sea, Vietnam suffers around 10 typhoons or tropical storms each year.
Last month, Typhoon Damrey killed 120 people as it left a trail of destruction stretching from the Philippines to China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
