[Vnbiz] Central Vietnam clears debris after typhoon strikes

[Phan, Tai]

Central Vietnam clears debris after typhoon strikes
Mon 2 Oct 2006 12:04 AM ET
DANANG, Vietnam, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Disaster relief officials and residents on Monday cleared fallen trees and debris from the streets of a Vietnamese resort city a day after a typhoon hammered the central coast, killing at least six people.

A government report said hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged by Typhoon Xangsane's high winds and rain in several central provinces and the resort of Danang, Vietnam's fourth largest city of about 1 million people.

The city began cleaning up on Sunday afternoon and some businesses were re-opening on Monday.

"We are reopen and business is back as usual," said a staff member at the Furama hotel resort.

A Reuters TV cameraman in Danang said a part of the airport terminal roof was torn off and city streets were strewn with trees, pieces of broken billboards and other debris. It was sunny in Danang, but the outskirts were flooded.

Vietnam Airlines said it was resuming service to the central region after suspending all flights on Sunday.

The National Flood and Storm Control Committee said that six people were killed and 192 injured in the typhoon, which swept westward across the South China Sea from the Philippines, where officials reported at least 76 storm-related deaths after it hit the archipelago last week.

On Sunday, Vietnamese officials said 10 were killed, but the reported drownings of four people in Nghe An province were later deemed to have happened before the typhoon struck.

Monday's government report said more than 5,000 houses were washed away, 166,000 damaged and 19 vessels sunk by Typhoon Xangsane, which means "elephant" in the Lao language. The storm weakened and moved westward across Laos and into Thailand.

Heavy rains from the typhoon in the Central Highlands coffee growing area triggered landslides in Kontum province on the border with Laos but did not hit robusta trees, officials said.

Danang and the nearby UNESCO-heritage town of Hoi An suffered most after the typhoon landed at about 9 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Sunday. There was no immediate estimate of damage costs.

A staff member of the Victoria Hoi An Beach Resort & Spa said by telephone that the hotel was likely to be closed for several days. Hoi An was scheduled to a host a meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum tourism ministers in two weeks' time. "Hoi An town has suffered big damage and is submerged in water," the hotel employee said.

In the days before the typhoon arrived, Vietnamese authorities evacuated hundreds of thousands of people in the region to safer areas and fishing vessels were called in. (Reporting by Nguyen Van Vinh and Nguyen Nhat Lam)