A map tracking the path of Typhoon Ketsana. Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331. (AFP/Graphic)
A Vietnamese resident tries to get into his flooded house after Typhoon Ketsana swept through Hoi An. Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331. (AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam)One of the most destructive storms in years has extended its deadly path across Southeast Asia, crushing homes in Cambodia and Vietnam after submerging much of the Philippine capital Manila.
The death toll climbed to 331 and was still rising on Wednesday.
"We're used to storms that sweep away one or two houses. But I've never seen a storm this strong," said Nam Tum, governor of Cambodia's Kampong Thom province.
The immediate threat eased as Typhoon Ketsana was downgraded to a tropical depression as it crossed into a fourth nation, Laos. But its powerful winds and pummelling rain left a snaking trail of destruction.
Landslides triggered by the storm slammed into houses in central Vietnam on Tuesday, burying people including five members of the same family. The country's toll rose to 74 as officials recovered more bodies from the muck and swollen rivers, with 179 injured and a dozen missing.
The storm destroyed or damaged nearly 180,000 homes, inundated 150,000 more, and flattened crops across central Vietnam. More than 350,000 people were evacuated from the typhoon's path, posing a logistical headache to shelter and feed them.
"The scale of the devastation is stretching all of us," said Minnie Portales, a World Vision aid agency official in the Philippines. The agency said it was struggling to assess the needs of victims in four countries, including the possibility that Laos would have damage.
Parts of two Vietnamese provinces remained cut off by floodwaters and downed trees and power lines on roads.
In neighbouring Cambodia at least 11 people were killed and 29 injured on Tuesday as the storm toppled dozens of rickety houses and swept away residents in the two provinces north of the capital that were hit. About 100 houses were destroyed and 400 others damaged. Five members of the same family died when their house collapsed as they ate dinner.
Authorities were searching for more victims and rushing food, medical supplies and plastic sheeting for temporary tents to storm-hit areas.
