Tropical cyclone Xangsane makes landfall in Vietnam by Laura Gilchrist
At around 3 am UK time on Sunday, Xangsane came ashore close to the coastal city of Dà Nang in central Vietnam.
The storm, which had been downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm just before landfall, also caught the cities of Hue to the north and Hoi An to the south. Early reports suggested that two people in Dà Nang were killed and many more injured, and around 3,000 houses were damaged or destroyed. Xangsane’s winds knocked out power to a wide area, and the torrential rain threatened flash flooding and landslides across much of central Vietnam.
Xangsane is now weakening rapidly across Vietnam’s neighbouring country of Laos, but the storm’s torrential rain will be a threat to the region for several more days. Xangsane is a Laotian word, meaning ‘elephant’.
The storm’s landfall in Vietnam came just days after it crossed the Philippine island of Luzon, causing flooding, landslides and the deaths of 76 people. Around 69 others are still reported as missing, and over 100,000 remain in emergency shelters.
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