Typhoon Kalmaegi hits Vietnam after killing 140 in Philippines

VIETNAM – Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall on Nov 6 in Vietnam’s already storm-battered central belt, where thousands have been evacuated from areas in the path of one of the world’s deadliest cyclones in 2025.

this week, killing at least 140 people and leaving another 127 missing after unleashing devastating floods.

It crashed into central Vietnam late on Nov 6, packing sustained winds of up to 149kmh with much faster gusts, the Environment Ministry said.

“The wind is so, so strong, nothing can resist,” Mr Vu Van Hao, 48, told AFP as he surveyed the shards of windows shattered by the storm in the lobby of a hotel in Gia Lai province.

“We here have never experienced such strong wind like this. It’s a natural disaster, what can we do?,” he added.

The typhoon hit as

that killed at least 47 people and submerged centuries-old historic sites.

“This is a huge typhoon with terrible devastating capacity,” said Mr Pham Anh Tuan, a top provincial official in Gia Lai, where state media said over 7,000 people had been evacuated as at the night of Nov 5.

In Gia Lai’s coastal area of Quy Nhon Nam, an AFP reporter saw officials knocking doors warning people to flee before the typhoon hit.

Elderly women and children were among dozens of people sheltering on Nov 6 at a school, carrying mats, pillows and blankets.

“I am not young anymore, and I don’t want to risk my life,” said Ms Tran Thi Nghia, 56, who left her one-storey home at the urging of the authorities.

Vietnam is in one of the most active tropical cyclone regions on earth and is typically affected by 10 typhoons or storms a year, but Kalmaegi is set to be the 13th of 2025.

Scientific evidence shows a pattern of human-driven climate change making extreme weather more frequent and destructive.

Kalmaegi slammed into the central Philippines on Nov 3, battering the islands of Cebu and Negros before swooping back out to sea.

Floodwaters described as unprecedented rushed through Cebu province’s towns and cities, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers.

In Liloan, a town near Cebu City where 35 bodies have been recovered, AFP journalists saw cars piled atop each other by floodwaters and roofs torn off buildings as residents attempted to dig out the mud.

On Nov 6, President Ferdinand Marcos declared a “state of national calamity”, a move allowing the government to release funding for aid and impose price ceilings on basic necessities.

More than 500,000 Filipinos remain displaced.

Before the storm hit Vietnam, top leader To Lam said he had cut short a session of the ruling Communist Party’s central committee, so officials could rush home to areas likely to be affected.

Some residents in the typhoon’s path piled onto motorbikes carrying water, clothes and other basic necessities before speeding away from their modest steel-roofed homes.

“I experienced only one huge typhoon in this area my whole life,” said a 53-year-old man who gave his name as Thanh, intending to ride out the storm in his concrete home.

“I am only afraid of heavy rains that may bring huge floods,” he added, saying he would send his children to stay with relatives.

Schools closed on Nov 6 and Nov 7 in Gia Lai and Quang Ngai provinces and at least five airports were shuttered, the authorities said, while dozens of flights have been rerouted.

The heavy rain starting in late October 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 1.7m of rain fell over one 24-hour period in a downpour

.

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

Natural disasters have already left 279 people dead or missing in 2025 and caused more than US$2 billion (S$2.61 billion) in damage, according to Vietnam’s national statistics office. AFP

Climate changeNatural disastersFloodsTyphoons/HurricanesVietnam