Tropical depression Kajiki made landfall on Tuesday in the area between Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam Provinces with wind speeds of 40-50 kph, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.

It then moved northeast toward the East Sea, also known as the South China Sea, and weakened but dumped rainfall of up to 530 mm, causing severe floods and landslides.  

Two people in Quang Binh Province and the nearby Ha Tinh Province were drowned after being swept away by floods. A man fell to death while fixing his roof due to strong winds in Thua Thien-Hue Province.

Landslides killed one person and injured three others in the northern province of Yen Bai.

11 people, a woman from Quang Binh, three fishermen from the central province of Quang Nam and seven people who were collecting leaves in the forest in Ha Tinh, have been missing since Monday.

The central region experienced downpours of 250-530 mm on Tuesday. Rainfall of 180 mm a day is considered heavy.

Severe damage

Many places in Quang Tri Province are experiencing their worst flood in a decade with hundreds of houses being submerged under five meters of water, prompting authorities to evacuate 1,000 families.

As of Wednesday 26 communes in Ha Tinh were severely flooded with around 3,000 hectares of rice under water. Thousands of students have been allowed to stay at home and many schools in Ha Tinh and Quang Tri have decided to cancel the opening ceremony of the 2019-2020 school year scheduled for Thursday.

Several localities and roads in Quang Binh are also heavily flooded, paralyzing traffic.

Further rainfall of 70-150 mm is expected in the area between Nghe An and Quang Nam.

Last year in Vietnam natural disasters, mostly floods, storms and landslides, killed 181 people and left 37 others missing and caused losses of around VND20 trillion ($858 million).