HUE (Agencies): After ripping through the Philippines, Typhoon Noru [Karding the Philippines] headed for Vietnam with winds of over and 175 kilometres per hour, making landfall in Da Nang on the morning of September 28, according to CNN.
It was reported by Viet Nam News, the English-language newspaper run by the state-run Vietnam News Agency, that more than 100,000 households—some 400,000 people had been evacuated by September 27.
Thua Thien Hue province, home to more than 2,000 fishing ships and around 11,000 fisherfolk, also banned vessels from going out to sea on September 25 as the storm approached.
People in Vietnam’s central provinces were evacuated to safe places, UCAN reported, preparing basic food supplies were.
Anthony Nguyen Dinh Trung, a lay leader from Hai Nhuan parish in Phong Dien district of Thua Thien Hue province, said that 30 Catholic volunteers had moved 80 households from inundated places to church facilities on September 26.
I feel safe here as I am scared stiff of storms that can cause a sad loss to my family
Anna Truong Thi Tuoi
The parish also offered food, bottled water and blankets to evacuees whose houses were flooded by heavy downpours of 150-300 millimetres caused by Typhoon Noru.
Anna Truong Thi Tuoi, who lives alone in a small house, said volunteers used a boat to move her to the church after her home was engulfed by flood waters from a nearby river.
“I feel safe here as I am scared stiff of storms that can cause a sad loss to my family,” Tuoi said. In 2006, Typhoon Xangsane destroyed her house and killed her husband.
Francis Xavier Ho Van Phuoc, a member of Hoi An parish council, said the parish has been providing accommodation, rice, instant noodles, drinking water and other basic needs to evacuees.
Lovers of the Holy Cross Sister Anna Nguyen Thi Nguyet, head of a 12-member community in Quang Tri province, said they have one tonne of rice and instant noodles available and produce 200 loaves of bread per day to serve 100 evacuees in their community during the storm.
Sister Nguyen said they plan to provide emergency food to ethnic communities in Huong Hoa district after the disaster. Last year, 35 families were isolated by floods for days and had to eat from banana trees to survive.
