Typhoon Damrey
© STR / AFPA women recovers a wooden window as she walks past heavily damaged houses at the coastal commune of Hai Thinh.
Damrey, the strongest typhoon to make landfall in southern Vietnam in 16 years, has left at least 19 people dead with hundreds of homes destroyed.

Damrey made landfall in southern Vietnam, near Nha Trang, with the equivalent strength of a Category 2 hurricane in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic oceans.

Not since Lingling in November 2001 has a typhoon that strong struck Vietnam south of Qui Nhon.

Damrey has left at least 19 people dead across central and southern Vietnam, according to Reuters.

Homes were damaged and destroyed. More than 370 homes had collapsed with the roofs of 1,000 others torn off. Hundreds of electricity poles were knocked down as trees were uprooted.

While the most destructive winds targeted Nha Trang and surrounding communities, the threat for flooding and mudslides expanded over a much larger area as heavy rain spread northward across central Vietnam and into the neighboring mountains of Laos.

Rainfall topped 130 mm (5.10 inches) in Nha Trang, while nearly 255 mm (10 inches) of rain inundated Qui Nhon in the 24 hours ending Saturday evening, local time.


Farther north, Da Nang recorded 102 mm (4.02 inches) during the same time frame. Da Nang will soon be hosting world leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, being held from Nov. 8 to 10.

Interaction with the mountainous terrain of southern Vietnam caused Damrey to weaken to a tropical rainstorm shortly after landfall.

However, more flooding and mudslides may be triggered into Monday across central Vietnam and neighboring Laos as heavy rain continues to stream in from the South China Sea.

In the mountainous terrain just to the west of Da Nang, 125-250 mm (5-10 inches) of rain is expected from Saturday night through Monday.

Additional periods of rain will dampen Da Nang for the start of APEC, but flooding downpours will become more isolated.

Localized flooding downpours will also continue to accompany Tropical Rainstorm Damrey across Cambodia and southern Thailand through the rest of this weekend.

As the center of Damrey tracks across Cambodia from Saturday night into Sunday, widespread rainfall of 75-150 mm (3-6 inches) can lead to flash flooding.

Siem Reap will be on the edge of the heaviest rain on Sunday, but 50-75 mm (2-3 inches) of rain may still soak the city. While this will not bring flooding, slow travel due to ponding on roadways is possible.

Before it became a tropical storm and was named Damrey, the cyclone unleashed more than 300 mm (12 inches) of rain on parts of northern Visayas and southern Luzon in the Philippines earlier in the week.

At least two people died in a landslide, according to The Manila Times.

There has now been two Typhoon Damreys to turn deadly in Vietnam. In September 2005, a typhoon of the same name triggered landslides and flooding in northern Vietnam. At least 57 people were killed, according to reports from AFP.

The majority of the lives were claimed in the hard-hit province of Yen Bai.