Deadly Tropical Storms

47 die as tropical storm hits Vietnam – Yahoo! News

    Tropical Storm Durian, believed to have claimed the lives of more
than 1,000 people in the Philippines, blew tin sheets off houses in
Vietnam and caused the collapse of homes in Ba Ria Vung Tau province,
some 78 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, that left 23 dead, said
Pham Nhat Quang, an official from the provincial military command.
    “The areas where the eye of the storm passed through looked like
they were just bombarded,” said Nguyen Van Tu, a local official in
another province where more than 4,000 homes were destroyed.    

Philippines president Gloria
ordered stepped-up recovery efforts as she consoled the families of
those killed in mudslides set loose by the powerful typhoon.  
    One woman hugged the president, telling her how she saw one of her
children and her husband swept away after they fell from a roof.
    Arroyo also visited Guinobatan, one of the worst-hit areas of Albay
province, where entire villages disappeared under tons of mud and
volcanic debris that cascaded down the slopes of the Mayon volcano last
Thursday.  
    “The search for victims must continue as we tend to the sick and
hungry in the evacuation centers, but we must now also push on the
search for permanent solutions bearing upon the root cause of these
grave calamities,” Arroyo said.
    At its height, with 165 mph winds and a five-hour deluge, the storm
dislodged tons of debris from the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Walls of
mud and boulders destroyed nearly every standing structure in their
path.
    Official figures showed 526 dead, 1,000 injured and 740 missing.
Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippines national Red Cross, said
he believed more than 1,000 died in the thousands of homes buried under
volcanic debris, mud and floodwaters.
    In Vietnam, where the storm had winds of 73 mph on Tuesday, at least
50 people have died, including three fisherman who drowned Monday when
their boat capsized as the storm approached.
    Seventeen people were killed in Ben Tre province, where more than
4,000 houses were destroyed and 26,000 others damaged, provincial
governor Cao Tan Khong said.     
    Weather forecasters said the storm was expected to continue
weakening as it moved into the Gulf of Thailand on Wednesday morning.