Typhoon Molave just battered Vietnam, Philippines, now Goni is on its way

Helicopter rescue teams searched for survivors on Friday after a series of deadly landslides in central Vietnam were unleashed by heavy rains from typhoon Molave.

And yet another powerful storm is following hard on Molave’s heels.

The typhoon has killed around 40 people since it arrived in Vietnam this week, although many people were rescued on Thursday, including three fishermen picked up by a cargo vessel and 33 people pulled from a village buried by a mudslide.

“The typhoon has left extremely huge damage,” Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung told a cabinet meeting on Friday.

Central Vietnam has had a tough year, swamped and battered by typhoons that have killed at least 160 people, left dozens missing, devastated towns, wiped out crops and forced hundreds of thousands into shelters.

In the Philippines, Molave killed 22 people, and now Goni, currently a severe tropical storm, is gathering strength as it edges towards central and southern Luzon, packing winds of up to 165kmh with a probable landfall on Sunday, the Philippine weather bureau said. The storm  is expected to further intensify and bring heavy rains with winds of up to 185kmh, reports Bloomberg.

After the Philippines, Goni is on course to reach central Vietnam later next week, making landfall around Da Nang, and will be the country’s ninth typhoon this year.

“My house is covered in deep mud and debris but I have no plan to clean it up as I heard more storms are coming,” Nguyen Thi Sinh, a resident of Quang Tri province, told Reuters by phone.

“No one had foreseen such severe flooding. Crops and livestock are all gone with the flood water. We have to encourage ourselves at least we are still alive.”