At least five people have been killed and several others injured after Typhoon Kalmaegi slammed into central and highland Vietnam on Thursday evening, bringing destructive winds and torrential rain that left widespread damage and power outages, state media reported.
The storm, which made landfall late Thursday, tore through Dak Lak, Quang Ngai, and Gia Lai provinces, destroying homes, sinking fishing boats, and knocking out power lines across multiple regions, according to Vietnam News.
Authorities said nearly 57 homes were completely destroyed while more than 3,000 others lost their roofs as powerful gusts swept through the area. At least 11 boats sank, and electricity supply was disrupted to an estimated 1.28 million households.
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More than 8,000 residents were evacuated from vulnerable coastal and mountainous areas as a precaution, the government said.
Vietnam’s Defense Ministry has mobilized over 268,000 soldiers for rescue and recovery operations. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi issued a travel advisory warning of waves as high as 8 meters (26 feet) and winds reaching 135 km/h (84 mph) in parts of the country’s central coastline.
By Friday morning, Kalmaegi had weakened to a tropical storm, according to Vietnam’s national weather agency. It is now moving westward toward Cambodia and Laos, bringing heavy rain but significantly reduced wind speeds.
Kalmaegi was the 13th typhoon to form in the South China Sea this year, the Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration said.
Earlier this week, the same storm devastated the central Philippines, where at least 188 people were killed and 135 remain missing, according to the Philippines Office of Civil Defense. Heavy flooding and landslides destroyed entire villages, making Kalmaegi one of the deadliest storms to strike Southeast Asia in 2025.
Both Vietnam and the Philippines are among the countries most vulnerable to tropical storms and typhoons, which regularly form over the Pacific Ocean before moving westward during the peak monsoon season.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the frequency and intensity of tropical storms in the region have increased in recent years, driven in part by warming ocean temperatures and climate change.
Authorities have warned of potential flash floods and landslides in the storm’s aftermath, particularly in mountainous areas where the soil remains saturated.
