HANOI, Vietnam – Disaster relief officials said Thursday they have recovered at least 38 bodies from flash flooding and landslides spawned by Typhoon Damrey, and the death toll is expected to rise as the search goes on in northern Vietnam.
Typhoon Damrey, which came ashore early Tuesday with winds of up to 63 mph, was the worst storm to hit Vietnam in a decade, leaving at least 41 people dead.
Earlier, the typhoon killed 34 people in China and the Philippines.
More than 900 feet of sea dikes were breached in Vietnam, inundating villages along the coast from Hai Phong to Thanh Hoa, 100 miles south of the capital, Hanoi.
Nguyen Van Ky, deputy chief of the Yen Bai military command, said 32 bodies have been found in the Van Chan district. Another six bodies were recovered in neighboring Phu Tho province, officials said.
At least 25 people remain missing from Yen Bai, provincial flood control official Nguyen Dinh Vo said.
More than 100 people were injured in the flash flooding triggered by Typhoon Damrey -- which means elephant in Cambodia's Khmer language.
Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed, Ky said, with troops using canoes to search along the northern Red River. Some 110 soldiers were mobilized in Cat Thinh village, where more than 100 homes were completely swept away in floodwaters.
Roads blocked by fallen trees, rocks, and landslides have hampered rescue work.
Some 300,000 people along Vietnam's northern and central coast were evacuated to higher ground before the typhoon hit.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox