The strongest typhoon to hit southern Vietnam in 16years made landfall in Khanh Hoa Province in the earlyhours of Saturday, Nov. 4, according to catastrophe modeling firmAIRWorldwide.

Typhoon Damrey was maintaining maximum wind speeds of 93 mph atlandfall. Areas from the south-central coast of Vietnam southwardto Vng Tàu were directly impacted by the storm system. Wind damagenear the landfall area was significant, causing ripped off roofs,knocked down electricity poles, downed trees, and widespread poweroutages. Interacting with a cold front from the north, Damreycaused torrential rain across the entire central and south-centralregion, with flooding and landslides reported. Further impacts arepredicted as rain is expected tocontinue through Wednesday, and many rivers andlakes are reaching capacity. 

According to AIR, while Vietnam is no stranger totyphoons, the southern part of the country is rarely troubledby storms. This year, Damrey is the 16th typhoon to make landfallin the Northwest Pacific, the fourth to make landfall in Vietnam,and the strongest to hit south of Qui Nhon in 16years since Typhoon Lingling. The country is still reelingfrom a tropical storm that struck more than two weeks earlier,which caused massive flooding and mudslides farther north incentral Vietnam, submerging more than 30,000 houses, and damaginginfrastructure and crops.

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Typhoon Damrey's timeline

Damrey formed near the east coast of the Philippines (where itwas known as Typhoon Ramil) and made landfall there as a tropicaldepression on Nov. 1. It caused massive floods and landslides insouthern Luzon and the Visayan Islands. Moving swiftly west, Damreyintensified over the next two days to a Category 1, according tothe Saffir-Simpson scale, in the Pacific Basin before slamming intoVietnam's south-central coast.

According to AIR, after landfall, Damrey lost force withinhours. It passed quickly through Vietnam, moving northwest toneighboring southern Cambodia onSunday afternoon, local time. Precipitation from Damreymay cause continued major flooding in south-central Vietnam overthe next two days, with continued flash flooding andlandslides.

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Damrey's damage, for now

The country's Central Steering Committee for Disaster Preventionand Control said the typhoon leveled more than 1,300 houses anddamaged nearly 115,000. The resort town and industrial center ofNha Trang, capital of Khanh Hoa, was directly hit by strongCategory 1-equivalent wind, along with rain and flooding. 

Flooding is widespread in the central region.More than 1,700 people were evacuated from the Cn Gi District in HoChi Minh City, and tourists were evacuated as Hoi An Town in QuangNam was submerged with waist-deep water.

According to AIR, in Vietnam, the majority of residentialstructures are reinforced concrete low- to mid-rise buildings.However, there is still a large portion of residential structuresthat are unreinforced masonry buildings, especially those that arelow-rise, which tend to fail to follow local building codes and areconstructed without proper supervision, which makes them vulnerableto natural hazards, such as typhoons. 

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