HANOI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Bebinca made landfall in Vietnam's northern and central region and quickly weakened into a tropical depression on Friday, but heavy rain could trigger landslides and flash floods, warned the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.
The tropical depression is likely to continue to cause downpours in the four provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An on Friday and Saturday. Landslides and flash floods were most likely to hit Thanh Hoa, while water levels of rivers in the central province were on the rise, the committee said.
Earlier, the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense mobilized nearly 528,000 people, mostly soldiers, to help local residents cope with Bebinca, the fourth typhoon to hit Vietnam so far this year.
Natural disasters, mainly typhoons, flash floods and landslides, killed or left missing 78 people and injured 64 others, destroyed over 740 houses, damaged 18,100 other houses, and damaged 12,600 hectares of rice and other crops in the first seven months of this year, said Vietnam's General Statistics Office.
The disasters also caused property losses of around 1,468 billion Vietnamese dong (63.8 million U.S. dollars).
