Typhoon Bualoi killed at least 12 people in northern central Vietnam, where heavy rains are expected to continue amid power cuts and flight disruptions.
The storm made landfall in Vietnam early Monday after it earlier slammed the Philippines, where 27 people were confirmed dead as of Sunday, according to Assistant Secretary Rafaelito Alejandro of the Office of Civil Defense. The storm was known as Opong in the Philippines, where Alejandro said at least four people are missing.
Some areas along the northern Vietnamese coast are forecast to receive as much as 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain on Monday and Tuesday, according to a government statement, which said rising rivers could cause flash floods and landslides in the western communes of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces.
The toll has climbed to 12, according to state-controlled news website VnExpress. Vietnamese authorities have evacuated more than 38,000 people across at least three provinces, according to local media.
There were widespread blackouts, with more than 2 million households from Ninh Binh province to Hue losing power, and the roof of the coal warehouse of the Vung Ang 2 Thermal Power Plant in Ha Tinh was severely damaged. At least 42,000 houses in Ha Tinh province were also damaged, according to VnExpress.
Bualoi caused flooding in Vietnam even before it made landfall, and it has now left more than 1,300 hectares of crops underwater, according to state television. Some 42 flights were canceled and a further 51 were delayed.
Power and telecommunication lines were severely impacted in many areas, VnExpress reported. The outages were partly due to damage to power poles, and partly due to proactive power cuts by electricity authorities to prevent storm damage.
Rockfalls damaged parts of the nation’s north-south railway, with the line blocked for more than an hour on Sunday, according to the government.
Bualoi made landfall as a typhoon, and as of 4 a.m. Vietnam time it was a severe tropical storm, according to the Hong Kong Observatory’s cyclone tracker.
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