The national weather forecaster of Vietnam indicated that Kalmaegi had winds as high as 149 kilometers per hour, which ripped off roofs of houses, felled down, and even toppled telegraph poles.
The central coast was struck by the storm which caused waves up to 10 meters. Six airports were shut and more than 260,000 citizens were moved to safety in the Gia Lai province.
Authorities indicated that over 268, 000 troops were available to assist in search and rescue missions. The government threatened to cause intensive flooding of lowlands and even destruction of crops in the Central Highlands, the principal coffee growing region in Vietnam.
Hotels and houses on Cua Dai beach adjacent to Hoi An were closed before the storm. Farmers in the area of Hue were still bouncing back to floods that had swept the area and taken the life of 47 people.
Rice farmer Nguyen Van Rin claimed that his animals and chicken had been drowned by previous floods. It will be the fourth time that Kalmaegi will come to our rescue, and I am afraid it will be a very bad one, as he steered his boat through a flooded road.
In the Philippines, the full range of the devastation was traced on Thursday when floodwaters subdued in Cebu, the most severely hit province.
Houses were leveled down, cars were upside down and the streets were littered. The authorities told that 127 individuals are still missing, and rescue operations are being complicated by the widespread destruction.
The problem is now clearing in debris. Such places should be swept as soon as possible not just to find the missing but to enable relief efforts to go on, said Raffy Alejandro, a senior civil defence official.
The destruction of Cebu is a month after the earthquake of magnitude 6.9 hit the island killing dozens and displacing thousands of people.
Another storm that is currently developing in the east of Mindanao and which may be developed into a typhoon, is also being monitored by forecasters and is likely to hit the Philippines at the beginning of the next week.
In the city of Talisay, the victims started going back to their houses remaining. “Everything was destroyed. Only the flooring remained.
Everything was washed out. There is no property we possess; I am Liza Becus, and I have gone after the scraps of metal to sell them so I can get rice to feed my seven children. “My children have nothing. They have taken their uniforms, have taken their bags, and everything we had.
