by Andrew Doan Thanh Phong
Quy Nhon – Typhoon Kalmaegi entered the East Sea of Vietnam on the morning of November 5 after sweeping through the Philippines and leaving serious damages. The wind was forecasted to be at level 15, gusting up to level 17, but when hitting the two provinces of Dak Lak, Phu Yen and Gia Lai, Quy Nhơn in central Vietnam, the storm was weakened by 2 levels, with her winds reaching to level 12-13, gusting up to level 15.
On the evening of November 6, 2025, typhoon Kalmaegi suddenly hit the central coastal strip, sweeping through three provinces of Quang Ngai, Gia Lai and Dak Lak – areas belonging to the Qui Nhon Diocese. During the storm the wind howled fiercely, and the rain poured down heavily across the entire area making many buildings in the diocese collapse, among those are Qui Nhon Bishop’s House, Lang Song Seminary. Furthermore, The Main House of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross in Qui Nhon, the Congregation of the Handmaids of Jesus of Mercy, and many parish churches like Qui Nhon Cathedral and other churches throughout the diocese were severely damaged. In the early morning of November 7 soon after the storm passed, Bishop of Qui Nhon diocese Matthew Nguyen Van Khoi and the Vicar General personally visited the affected facilities, listening the difficulties of the priests, religious and parishioners
According to the Government Party Committee’s report on the morning of November 7, the storm made 5 people , 3 others missing, and 6 people injured. It also collapsed completely 52 houses and damaged nearly 2,600 houses. Such damages were considered lower compared to storms of similar intensity in the past due to the drastic direction and timely response of the government and local people.
A week ago, the other cities of Hue, Danang and Quang Ngai in Central Vietnam were submerged in water by the most severe flood in the last 60 years from 1964, making the local transportation system paralyzed and the electricity cut – off. Furthermore the water from reservoirs were released and rushed down, sweeping away many public and private properties, submerging tens of thousands of cars and motorbikes in the water. Many hospitals were also flooded, in particular the dirty water reached up to the patients’ beds on the ground floor in the Central hospital of Hue city and caused many difficulties to the patients and other activities of medical treatments. Understanding such a difficult problem, the sisters of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross in Hue did not mind the dirty water, they waded through it to visit and provide the in-house patients and their caregivers with foods and essential necessities.
Mr. Mai Van Khiem, Director of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said: “the highest rainfall of 1,740mm in the history of Vietnam within 24 hours was recorded on October 26-27 on top of Bach Ma Mountain belonging to Hue city, and in one and a half day between October 25 – 27, the rainfall here reached up to 2,272mm”. While the common amount of rainfall between 200-400mm, some specific places reaching up over 600mm was measured in nearby regions by extremely heavy and continuous rains on these days.
For that bad situation, the militia in Phuoc Giang commune in Quang Ngai province, central Vietnam stayed up all night using boats to evacuate people on the evening of 28 to the morning of 29, especially the elderly and children in the isolated and flooded villages to safer places.
The local residents said: “The water rose so quickly that it flooded their houses in just a few hours, leaving us no time to react. And we just ran away within a short time so we only took our children and a few personal belongings with us, and left the rest of the house into the water”.
Besides, urgent information was widely shared on social networks with the content: “Urgent! In Duy Xuyen Hospital of Danang city, currently many patients are staying and other surgeries are being continuously performed, many serious cases are being treated in the emergency room. But water flooded into the hospital rooms causing power outages and cutting off the outside. And right now, the diesel for generators, the drinking water, and the food in the hospital are running out. We insist that local benefactors will come and support the hospital URGENTLY”.
And at the same time, a report from the Archdiocese of Hue noted: “nearly 90% of parishes in the diocese, together with the Archbishop’s House and the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Hue were under water. Most residential areas lost power, and fell into a state of isolation and separation which caused heavy damages and losses to daily life of parishioners”.
This historic flood killed 13 people, left 11 others missing, and injured 34 people. Together with that, it collapsed completely 56 houses and made 147 other houses damaged. The flooding water spread over a vast area and made 90 communes and wards submerged from 0.5m-2m in water, and in total there were 116,789 houses, 5,661 hectares of rice, crops and fruit trees were flooded and damaged; 17,761 livestock and poultry were killed and swept away…
As soon as the rain stopped, the water receded, and traffic was cleared, many Catholic, Buddhist, and civilian associations promptly reached the flooded areas to help the people. Specifically, on the afternoon of October 31, 2025, Archbishop Joseph Dang Duc Ngan, some priests, and the members from the Caritas of Hue Archdiocese visited and gave necessities to the parishioners in the flooded community of Tien Thanh in Kim Doi parish, Hue Archdiocese. And one day later, on the early morning of November 1, the Caritas committee of Da Nang Cathedral parish went to the parishes of Ha Tan and Hoang Phuoc in Da Nang diocese, the areas were severely damaged by the last flood , to give 200 gifts to 200 families regardless of their religion, each consisting of 250,000 VND equivalent to 10 USD and 5 kg of rice. According to Ms. Maria Vu Thi Hong Anh, the head of Caritas of Da Nang Cathedral Parish: “Seeing the images of this historic flood, I feel very sorry for the residents in the rural areas, they are poor and now their life is much more difficult when losing their properties. Therefore, on October 30 and 31, I called for the help of many friends and other people around for contributions and to go there as soon as possible to help them overcome these difficult days.”
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