Vietnam typhoon death toll climbs

TUY HOA, Vietnam -- Typhoon Lingling has roared into central Vietnam, killing at least 18 people, knocking out power and destroying hundreds of homes.

The storm, which left 171 confirmed dead and another 118 missing in the Philippines, brought 130 kilometer per hour (83 mph) gusts when it hit Vietnam between Phu Yen and Binh Dinh provinces, the National Center for Hydro Meteorology said.

Provincial officials reported 13 deaths in Phu Yen, two in Binh Dinh and three in Quang Ngai province. Seventy-six others were injured in the three provinces.

More than 100 houses were destroyed in Phu Yen province and electricity had been cut off since Sunday night, said Nguyen Tai, a local government official.

Binh Dinh officials said nearly 900 homes had collapsed there, while 100 homes in neighboring Quang Ngai were destroyed. National train service was disrupted in some areas.

The typhoon lost strength after hitting land and was downgraded to a severe tropical storm.

"Lingling has passed through the coastal areas and is moving into the Central Highlands right now," Nguyen said.

Disaster officials meanwhile said a 16-year-old boy was electrocuted in Quang Ngai due to knocked down power lines, and a three-year old child was crushed when a house collapsed in Binh Dinh province.

Billed as the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in 15 years, Typhoon Lingling has destroyed houses, uprooted trees, and damaged and sunk some 74 fishing boats, local officials said.

Fishing boats in central Vietnam were ordered back to port at the weekend and authorities ordered evacuation of exposed coastal areas or places vulnerable to riverbank erosion or landslides.

A Reuters Video News cameraman said he saw dozens of trees uprooted on Vietnam's north-south Highway One running through the province of Phu Yen and in its capital town of Tuy Hoa, about 150 km (93 miles) south of Quang Ngai.

Local officials said 400 families have already been evacuated on Sunday from low-lying areas around Tuy Hoa.

Disrupting harvest

The super typhoon also brought rains to the coffee-growing Central Highlands.

But a state coffee exporter in the key growing province of Daklak told Reuters news agency no damage to trees had been reported, although rains had disrupted the harvest.

Lingling was the first typhoon to hit central Vietnam this year, although a tropical low-pressure system last month brought torrential rains and floods to eight central provinces, killing at least 44 people.

Meteorologists warned that Lingling could bring more rain to upstream parts of the Mekong River in Cambodia and the lower areas of Laos.

He said a swelling of the Mekong River upstream could slow the receding of floodwaters downstream in the rice-growing Mekong Delta which have killed at least 366 people since August, 286 of them children, but done only slight damage to crops.

Flash floods and landslides in Vietnam's central region in October and November 1999 killed more than 730 people.

Reuters contributed to this report.