Storm Kalmaegi leaves 5 dead, 3 missing in Vietnam

Kalmaegi, the 13th storm to hit the country this year, left nearly 2,900 houses in Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Quang Ngai Provinces unroofed or damaged.

Sixty-one homes in Gia Lai and Dak Lak collapsed, while more than 3,700 homes were flooded, with 3,000 of them in Gia Lai’s coastal Hoai Nhon Bac Commune.

Dak Lak also reported severe losses to aquaculture, with 54,000 fish cages destroyed and 12 fishing boats sunk.

The storm also disrupted power in many areas, damaging 28 high-voltage substations. Roughly 1.6 million households from Da Nang City to Khanh Hoa Province lost electricity, though power has been restored to about 315,000 homes.

Infrastructure damage was severe. In Gia Lai, floodwaters washed away a 25-meter section of the approach to the Dak Po To Bridge along Truong Son Dong Road.

In Dak Lak, heavy flooding submerged sections of National Highway 19C and Provincial Road 641, blocking traffic.

Landslides in Quang Ngai have since been cleared, and the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway reopened at 5:00 am on Friday.

Dak Lak alone has reported economic losses of about VND1.9 trillion (US$73 million).

On Friday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc signed a decision allocating VND80 billion (over $3 million) in emergency relief from the national reserve budget to help Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, and Dak Lak recover from the storm.

The aid package includes VND20 billion ($760,000) for Quang Ngai and VND30 billion ($1.15 million) each for Gia Lai and Dak Lak.

Local authorities continue to assess damage, assist affected residents, and work to restore essential infrastructure and services.