Typhoon Bualoi blew roofs off houses and uprooted power poles along Vietnam’s coast, killing at least 11 people, local and national officials reported on Monday.
The storm, the tenth to batter Vietnam this year, made landfall late Sunday, bringing gusts of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour.
Authorities in three provinces told AFP that thousands of homes and businesses had been damaged or destroyed.
AFP photos show corrugated metal roofs ripped off buildings and household detritus strewn across flooded streets in coastal Nghe An province.
“The wind blew my roof to the sky, and then it fell down, breaking everything. I had to cover my head and rush to my neighbor’s house to be safe,” Trinh Thi Le, 71, in central Quang Tri province, was quoted as saying by state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.
No fewer than nine people were killed when a typhoon-related whirlwind swept through northern Ninh Binh province early on Monday, according to the local disaster agency.
One person was killed in the province of Hue and another in Thanh Hoa, while no fewer than 20 were missing, local and national disaster authorities reported.
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Nine individuals were missing at sea Sunday night after their fishing boats were unmoored due to heavy winds and currents, according to authorities.
Before Bualoi hit Vietnam, more than 53,000 people were evacuated to schools and medical centers that had been turned into temporary shelters, according to the environment ministry.
Four domestic airports and a portion of the national highway were closed on Monday. Airport authorities said that over 180 aircraft had been cancelled or delayed.
Parts of Nghe An and the central province of Ha Tinh, which produces steel, were without electricity, and schools in those areas were shuttered.
Bualoi has weakened since making landfall in Vietnam and is now moving towards adjacent Laos.
Last week, a hurricane slammed small islands in the Philippines’ center, killing at least 11 people and forcing 400,000 more to evacuate.
Natural catastrophes killed or left 175 persons missing in Vietnam between January and August of this year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
