Rammasun - one of the strongest typhoons in decades
After battering the Philippines, Typhoon Rammasun killed at least 18 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes in southern China. One of the strongest storms to hit the area in four decades has now reached Vietnam.
A super typhoon
The storm first made landfall in China as a super typhoon in the afternoon of Friday, July 18, packing winds exceeding 200 kilometers (124 miles) an hour. Authorities issued a "red" alert warning for Rammasun on Saturday - the highest level of China's four color-code warning system - and suspended hundreds of buses, trains and flights across the region.
Hainan and Guangxi
Rammasun killed nine people and left five missing after hitting Hainan Island on Friday off China's southern coast, according to Chinese authorities. Nine others died later in the Guangxi region as the strongest typhoon to hit south China since 1973 headed north to Vietnam, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
Billions in damages
The strong winds and heavy rainfall damaged buildings, knocked down power lines, destroyed 37,000 homes and ravaged 468,500 hectares (1.2 million acres) of crops in Hainan and Guangdong provinces and Guangxi, causing 4.3 billion USD in damage, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Some 100,000 people were forced to seek shelter.
Rammasun slams Vietnam
After battering southern China, Rammasun made landfall in northern Vietnam where at least thirteen people were killed and four remain missing. More than 500 houses were damaged and 4,000 hectares of rice submerged, the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control said. The storm brought up to 550 millimeters of rain over the past three days to parts of the region.
Storm wreaks havoc
But the largest number of causalities has been reported in the Philippines, where the storm hit before lashing China. Rammasun wreaked havoc in the northern part of the archipelago last week, leaving 94 people dead, with six still missing and 317 injured, the national disaster risk management agency said.
Ferocious winds
In the Philippines, winds from the typhoon, locally known as Glenda, approached 200 kph (120 mph), tearing roofs off houses, overturning cars and ripping down electricity lines in the megacity of Manila, as well as remote fishing villages hundreds of kilometers away.
Standstill
Strong winds and bursts of heavy rain brought the capital to a virtual standstill. Power in Manila and neighboring provinces was cut as branches were torn off trees and electricity lines snapped. Manila's power distributor, Meralco, said 5.3 million homes had lost electricity in the city and surrounding provinces, and that it could be days before services were restored to some areas.
Seeking shelter
Across the country, some 400,000 people fled their homes and sought shelter in evacuation centers, according to the disaster management council. The Philippines is hit by about 20 major storms a year, many of them deadly. The Southeast Asian archipelago is often the first major landmass to be struck after storms build above the warm Pacific Ocean waters.
'God of Thunder'
Rammasun, which in Thai means "God of Thunder," was the first typhoon to make landfall in the Philippines since this year's rainy season began in June. It was also the first major storm since Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the eastern islands of Samar and Leyte in November last year, leaving at least 6,300 people dead and over 1,000 missing in one of the Philippines' worst natural disasters.
Fear of 'the nightmare'
The areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan (seen here) felt only light rain and winds this time around, but that was enough to send panic through some Haiyan survivors. "I feared we were going to relive our nightmare, when we had to swim for our lives," 49-year-old fisherman Alfredo Coja, told AFP.