Hanoi (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Downgraded to the status of a tropical storm, Typhoon Haiyan is now battering northern Vietnam and southern China with winds of 120 kilometres an hour and torrential rain, sowing death and destruction, including six dead in Vietnam and three in China, where seven people are missing. Hundreds of people have been injured in both countries. Although it is still too early to know the full extent of the damages, many houses have been reported demolished.
As it left the Philippines and moved across the South China Sea, Haiyan changed direction, turning north towards regions considered hitherto out of danger, forcing local authorities to scramble to take precautionary steps.
In Vietnam, the government has been working around the clock to prepare for the storm's landing. Thousands of homes in the coastal villages of the country's north-east have been evacuated, especially in Thanh Hoa and Quang Ninh provinces. In Thua Thien-Hue, 330,000 people were evacuated. Some 45,000 were forced to leave Thanh Hoa. Another 40,000 residents did the same in Ha Tinh. More than 600,000 people in central coastal provinces were evacuated.
In Hai Phong, more than two thousand vessels were brought ashore safely. Another 4,100 fishing boats were told to find refuge. In many northern provinces, schools were closed.
In China, where a weakened storm is expected to land Monday evening, the authorities have raised the level of alert in Guangdong and Guangxi. As wind and rain hit coastal islands, schools closed in Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangcgenggang. Chinese sources report three deaths in the province of Hainan and seven fishermen missing.
In the meantime, the outpouring of solidarity for typhoon-stricken Philippines is intensifying. Even Pope Francis, through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, is sending an initial assistance of US$ 150,000 to help residents.
The money, the Pontifical Council reports, "will be distributed through the local Church in the regions most affected by the disaster to be used to support aid work carried out in favour of the people displaced and affected by flooding. It is a first and immediate concrete expression of the Supreme Pontiff's spiritual closeness and paternal encouragement towards the people and territories devastated by the floods."