Deadly typhoon spares Vietnam after killing hundreds in the Philippines

A powerful typhoon that killed hundreds in the Philippines over the weekend weakened to a tropical depression on Tuesday and failed to make an expected landfall in Vietnam. Weather forecasters had warned that Typhoon Tembin could hit Vietnam’s vulnerable Mekong Delta region. The country’s disaster prevention committee on Monday evacuated approximately 74,000 people and shut down schools in Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon), Vietnam’s largest city. Over the weekend, Tembin triggered flash floods and landslides that killed at least 164 people and left another 171 others missing in the Philippines, according to Romina Marasigan from Vietnam’s disaster-response agency. More than 97,000 people remained in 261 evacuation centers across the country’s south and nearly 85,000 other displaced people sought shelter elsewhere, Vietnam’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported. The storm is expected to weaken further over the Gulf of Thailand later Tuesday.