Waves pound a beach in in Vietnam's central Thanh Hoa province October 3, 2007. Typhoon Lekima lashed central Vietnam with torrential rains and high winds, killing several people and blowing roofs off houses, media reports said on Thursday.
Tracking Data
Date: 30 SEP-03 OCT 2007
Typhoon-1 LEKIMA
ADV LAT LON TIME WIND PR STAT
1 15.50 116.30 09/30/00Z 25 - TROPICAL DEPRESSION
2 14.90 114.50 09/30/06Z 35 - TROPICAL STORM
3 14.60 113.70 09/30/12Z 45 - TROPICAL STORM
4 14.60 113.30 09/30/18Z 55 - TROPICAL STORM
5 14.90 113.20 10/01/00Z 55 - TROPICAL STORM
6 15.80 112.90 10/01/06Z 55 - TROPICAL STORM
7 16.10 112.10 10/01/12Z 55 - TROPICAL STORM
8 16.30 111.80 10/01/18Z 55 - TROPICAL STORM
9 16.80 111.60 10/02/00Z 60 - TROPICAL STORM
11 17.80 109.90 10/02/12Z 70 - TYPHOON-1
12 18.00 109.10 10/02/18Z 70 - TYPHOON-1
13 17.60 108.20 10/03/00Z 70 - TYPHOON-1
16 18.00 105.40 10/03/18Z 45 - TROPICAL STORM
HANOI (AP): Rescuers in Vietnam recovered the bodies of 11 more people killed by floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Lekima, as authorities on Tuesday tried to reach remote areas which have been isolated for nearly a week.
The discovery of the bodies pushed the death toll across Vietnam to 77, while 11 others remain missing and are feared dead, officials said.
Packing winds of 130 kilometers per hour (80 mph), Typhoon Lekima hit Vietnam central provinces last Wednesday.
The death toll in the worst-hit province of Nghe An rose to 23 after rescue workers found a drowned body Monday night. Five people were missing, said provincial official Tran Gia Danh.
``Water has receded, but very slowly,'' Danh said. ``It has hindered our rescue efforts. Thousands of people, who are still living in isolated villages, really need food to survive.''
Three more bodies were recovered late Monday in Thanh Hoa, bringing the death toll there to 17. Two people were reported missing, said Nguyen Van Hoa, a disaster official.
``We have just been able to reach several parts of Thach Thanh district, as water is still everywhere,'' Hoa said, adding that food aid now is top priority after floodwaters wiped out the provisions of hundreds of thousands farmers.
The bodies of 7 other people were found in the provinces of Ninh Binh, Son La, Hoa Binh and Yen Bai.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and the Vietnamese government estimated that about 10 million Vietnamese had been affected by Typhoon Lekima, said Joe Lowry, a Red Cross official told The Associated Press from Ninh Binh.
The typhoon washed away 6,000 houses, damaged 52,000 houses and destroyed about 80,000 hectares of crops, Lowry said.
``In lowland in Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh and Nghe An, we saw many people living on dikes, roofs of houses or higher areas, which is very dangerous'', he said, adding that besides food, clean water, people also now shelters and protection from mosquitoes.
Vietnam's Department of Floods and Storms Control said earlier the initial damage estimate from the typhoon was 2,100 billion dong (US$131 million; euro93 million).
Authorities are rushing aid to hundreds of thousands of people. Nearly 5,000 soldiers and more than 30,000 militiamen have been mobilized to help people deal with the aftermath of the flooding, Vietnam's Department of Floods and Storms Control .
Vietnam is prone to floods and storms that kill hundreds of people each year.
