Weakened Haiyan makes landfall in Vietnam

HANOI: Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in Vietnam early Monday, uprooting trees and tearing roofs off hundreds of homes, but sparing the country the widespread devastation wrought on the Philippines.
The storm weakened significantly since scything through the Philippines over the weekend, where it is feared to have killed more than 10,000 people as it pulverized towns and villages.
But it still packed heavy rains and winds of 75 miles (120 km) per hour as it hit northern Vietnam and more than 800,000 people were evacuated nationwide over the weekend as the weather system bore down on Vietnam.
In the northern port city of Hai Phong, residents said even a weakened Haiyan had felt like a major storm when it hit.
“The storm was really big. I cannot think of any other bigger storm than this over the past several years. I felt my house shaking last night,” resident Nguyen Hung Nam, 70, said.
“We were quite well prepared so I don’t think there is that much damage.” The capital Hanoi saw downpours and houses in some northern provinces were damaged by high winds.
“Several hundred houses had their roofs ripped off. Thousands of trees in the province were uprooted,” said Nguyen Cong Thuan, a disaster official in Quang Ninh province.
“Three people were reported missing.” The government said no deaths had been reported so far, although five people died during preparations for the typhoon.
“Up to now, we have been successful in minimizing human and material losses,” Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said, according to a statement.