Typhoon Molave Kills 23 in Vietnam and Delays Coffee Harvest
Typhoon Molave Kills 23 in Vietnam and May Delay Coffee Harvest
(Bloomberg) -- At least 23 people were killed and dozens were hurt or missing in Vietnam after Typhoon Molave slammed into the central provinces earlier this week, destroying homes and crops along its path, the government said.
Molave is “one of the two most powerful storms Vietnam has had in the past 20 years,” according to a statement on the government website citing Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung who had visited the affected areas.
Almost 50 people are missing and 45 were injured as Molave dumped rain and caused flooding and landslides, the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said. About 1.3 million people were forced to flee as the storm damaged more than 91,000 homes.
The Central Highlands’ coffee-planting province of Gia Lai may postpone bean picking until late November after “quite a lot” of farmlands were damaged, according to provincial authorities.
An estimated 2.7 trillion dong ($116 million) worth of property and crops were damaged by storms and other natural calamities that hit Vietnam this month, the government said. In October alone, 111,900 houses, 45,000 hectares of paddy rice, 22,300 hectares of fruits and vegetables were damaged, the General Statistics Office said.
Molave killed at least 16 people in the Philippines and the country is bracing for another storm that’s gaining strength and could also head to Vietnam, according to a meteorologist.
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