HANOI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Sonca, the fourth tropical storm in the South China Sea so far this year, landed in some of Vietnam's central provinces, causing considerable property losses, the country's Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said Wednesday.
The storm blew away roofs of 57 houses in Quang Tri province, inundated nearly 2,900 hectares of rice in Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces, damaged roughly 1,300 hectares of other crops in Quang Tri, and broke 600 meters of dykes in Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, the committee told Xinhua.
Heavy rain and whirlwinds in Ha Tinh province injured two local people, and damaged 62 houses and two schools on Tuesday, said the committee.
In the first half of the year, natural disasters in Vietnam killed or left missing 27 people, injured 30 others, damaged 5,900 houses and inundated 11,400 hectares of crops, causing property losses of over 433 billion Vietnamese dong (19.2 million U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office.
