VNExpress-Nov 6
Strong winds and heavy rain from Typhoon Kalmaegi tore through Vietnam’s central region on Thursday night, leaving markets, factories, homes, and streets severely damaged and thousands of people without power. The storm’s fury was evident in the damage sustained by the market’s central section. The fierce winds wrecked many stalls within the structure, which is a significant local landmark. The market, originally established in 1906 and expanded after 1975, is home to roughly 160 vendor stalls. Metal sheets torn from house roofs were scattered across nearby residential streets. Typhoon Kalmaegi rapidly weakened into a tropical depression and then dissipated into a low-pressure area on Friday morning after it slammed into central Vietnam the previous night. Among the hardest hit was 63-year-old Nguyen Thi Kim Hong, who stood staring at the wreckage of her fruit stall. A vendor at the market for over 30 years, she stated she had never witnessed such destruction.
Nearby, resident Tran Thi Quy sat in front of her home, its corrugated roof violently bent and twisted, partially collapsed by the storm. Overwhelmed by the destruction, she lamented, “Everything is damaged. I don’t even know where to start cleaning.” Around the Song Cau Market, the powerful winds uprooted or snapped apart numerous trees, leaving streets littered with debris and making them virtually impassable. One example of the widespread damage saw a 20-meter-tall tree crash onto power and communication lines along Pham Van Dong Street in Song Cau Ward. As a result, the area has been without electricity since the storm made landfall around 7 p.m. the previous night. The coastal roads of Quy Nhon Ward in Gia Lai Province, which is concentrated with high-rise buildings and tourist facilities, suffered some of the heaviest damage. Strong winds blew the roofs off many houses, shops, and hotels in this vital coastal hub. Read more at:
