"Explosion kills 19 at fireworks plant
HANOI — An explosion Saturday at a military-run fireworks factory in northern Vietnam killed at least 19 workers and injured dozens of others. The provincial health department said the morning explosion injured more than 90 workers, many of them seriously (AP)."
"Tropical Storm Wutip lashes Vietnam’s coast" Associated Press, October 01, 2013
HANOI — Tropical Storm Wutip lashed central Vietnam on Monday after sinking at least two Chinese fishing boats near the Paracel Islands, leaving 75 fishermen missing, officials said.
The storm uprooted trees, cut power lines, and damaged about 1,000 houses. There was no immediate word of injuries, flooding, or major structural damage.
Vietnam’s national weather center said Wutip had weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall. It was packing sustained winds of 73 miles per hour, it said.
Officials evacuated tens of thousands of people from the storm’s path over the previous day. Schools in five central provinces closed and the coast guard told 61,000 fishing boats to take shelter.
By nightfall, Wutip had blown the roofs off of more than 1,000 houses in one district alone, local government official Pham Huu Thao said. TV footage showed uprooted trees and deserted city streets in central towns close to the storm’s center. Vietnam is prone to floods and storms that kill hundreds of people and cause millions of dollars in damage each year.
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