By RaychelHarvey-JonesAccuWeather.com
The biggest floods in decades threaten Vietnam's central provinces today(Wednesday) following a powerful typhoon that swept into the country afterwreaking havoc in the Philippines.The government said 38 people had died and 10 were missing in floods andlandslides in eight coastal and central highland provinces of Vietnam. Riverwaters in Quang Nam province could reach a level last seen in 1964 by Wednesdayevening, causing the worst floods in three decades.
Reports from the region say that from the air, one can see many areas aroundDanang being isolated by floods, sea waves pounded the road along Danang'sbeach and threw several ships onshore.
Typhoon Ketsana slammed into Vietnam late on Tuesday, dumping torrential rainacross central Vietnam that left 294,000 homes destroyed, damaged or submergedby floods. Around 357,000 people in 10 provinces were evacuated. The region hitby Ketsana lies far north of Vietnam's Mekong Delta rice basket.
Rain dumped on the Central Highlands coffee belt could delay the start of thenext coffee harvest by up to 10 days, but exports would not be affected,according to traders whose livelihoods depend on these crops. Ketsana hadweakened to a tropical storm after moving into Laos and Cambodia on Tuesdaynight but still caused significant damage.Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai urged authorities to quickly resume powersupplies to the typhoon-hit regions, including Quang Ngai province whereVietnam's first oil refinery, Dung Quat, was due to reopen on Wednesday afteran outage shut the plant's test runs last month.
Over the next several days, the global meteorologists at AccuWeather willcontinue to watch Typhoon Parma and TD20 W or Tropical Storm Melor, which havethe potential to affect the Philippines.
