Tropical typhoon Rammasun, the first storm to hit the Philippines thisrainy season, has claimed the lives of at least 20 people, leaving seveninjured and five missing in the country.
According to the country’s authorities, most of the dead were caused by collapsed walls or fallen trees. Rammasun, carrying wind gusts of up to 250 kilometres per hour,smashed large parts of the Philippines, especially Luzon island, on July15, forcing 423,000 people to evacuate. A totalof 254 domestic and international flights were cancelled due to badweather, while many schools and offices were closed. At night on July 16, typhoon Rammasun left the Philippines, heading for the East Sea. According to Vietnam’s Central Hydro-Meteorological ForecastingCentre, the typhoon, the second to enter the East Sea, continues gettingstronger and may hit northern provinces. At 4am onJuly 17, it was centred at 16.1 degrees north latitude and 116.3 degreeseast longitude, about 460 km east-southeast of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa(Paracel) archipelago. It packed maximum sustained wind of 149kph. In the next 24 hours, the typhoon’s eye is forecast to move to 200 kmnorth of Hoang Sa archipelago, with the strongest wind gust of 166kph.-VNA
