Typhoon Kalmaegi Devastates Vietnam Following Tragic Toll in the Philippines

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Typhoon Kalmaegi churned across Vietnam on Friday, claiming five more lives after its devastating passage through the Philippines where the death toll rose to 188.

Kalmaegi unleashed record rainfall and flooding in the central Philippines this week — sweeping away cars, trucks and shipping containers before lashing Vietnam late Thursday.

“The roof of my house was just blown away,” said Nguyen Van Tam, a 42-year-old fisherman in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province, where the storm made landfall packing sustained winds of up to 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour, according to the environment ministry.

“We were all safe, (but) the typhoon was really terrible, so many trees fallen,” he said, adding that his boat had survived intact.

On Friday, Vietnamese officials were still evaluating the extent of destruction, with the environmental ministry reporting that five individuals had lost their lives and 57 homes were destroyed in Gia Lai and the adjacent Dak Lak region.

Nearly 3,000 more had their roofs blown off or were damaged, it said, while 11 boats or ships sank.

In the streets along Gia Lai’s Quy Nhon beach, rescue workers and soldiers working with residents to clear uprooted trees, remove debris and collect sheet-metal roofs blown away in the night.

“This was a very big typhoon that hit us,” Tran Ngo An, 64, told Agence France-Presse. “This was the second time I witnessed such a typhoon. The other one was 10 years ago or so, but not that strong as compared to this.”

The state power company said 1.6 million clients lost electricity as the typhoon smashed the central coast, but service to a third of them had been restored by Friday morning.

Vietnam lies in one of the globe’s most cyclone-prone zones, typically experiencing around 10 typhoons or storms annually. However, Kalmaegi marked the 13th storm of 2025.

Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall.

Fast-moving Kalmaegi had already swept northwest toward Laos by morning with significantly weakened winds, but heavy rain was still forecast for much of Vietnam’s central coast, the national weather bureau said.

The storm was projected to move towards Thailand next, prompting the country to issue a warning on Friday about anticipated heavy rainfall and potential flooding, initially affecting the northeast before moving across the nation.

The typhoon struck central Vietnam at a time when the region was already grappling with the aftermath of over a week of flooding and unprecedented rainfall, which had claimed at least 47 lives and inundated historic landmarks.

Kalmaegi had initially battered the islands of Cebu and Negros in the Philippines before swooping back out to sea.

Floodwaters described as unprecedented rushed through the hardest hit Cebu province’s towns and cities, where the hunt for missing people continues.

Philippines authorities raised the death toll to 188, with 135 still missing.

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The heavy rains starting in late October had drenched the former imperial capital Hue and the ancient town of Hoi An, both UNESCO-listed sites, turning streets into canals and flooding tens of thousands of homes.

Up to 1.7 metres fell over one 24-hour period in a downpour breaking national records.

With more than 3,200 kilometres of coastline and a network of 2,300 rivers, Vietnam faces a high risk of flooding.

Before Kalmaegi, natural disasters had already left 279 people dead or missing this year and caused more than $2 billion in damage, according to Vietnam’s national statistics office.