Whirlwinds and hail caused extensive damage to property and crops in many districts of the northern mountainous province of Hà Giang on Thursday morning, online newspaper baotintuc.vn reported yesterday. — VNA/VNS Photo Phi Anh

HÀ GIANG — Whirlwinds and hail caused extensive damage to property and crops in many districts of the northern mountainous province of Hà Giang on Thursday morning, online newspaper baotintuc.vn reported yesterday.

According to the Hà Giang Steering Committee for Natural Calamity Prevention, Search and Rescue, the weather injured one person and caused more than 350 houses to collapse or lose their roofs. Several public works were badly damaged.

Two schools in the province saw their roofs completely blown off. Students had to temporarily leave the schools.

The whirlwinds and hail were caused by a low pressure system, said the committee.

Thèn Ngọc Minh, chairman of Hoàng Su Phì District told the paper that “tens of ethnic minority households collapsed or had their roofs removed by the strong wind and hail”.

“Many schools in the communes of Nam Sơn, Túng Sán, Ngàm Đăng Vài and Thông Nguyên were badly damaged while tens of thousands of hectares of maize were totally destroyed,” the chairman said. “Several roads were divided due to trees falling down.”

Transport routes from Vinh Quang Township to Tụ Nhân and Chiến Phố communes were still blocked.

According to initial reports, tens of thousands of hectares of maize and thảo quả (a plant used in traditional medicine and as a spice) in Vị Xuyên District were severely damaged.

Bắc Quang District reported that about 200 houses in the communes of Kim Ngọc, Đồng Tâm and Thượng Bình had collapsed and 100 ha of oranges in Tân Quang Commune were destroyed. Hundreds of hectares of sugarcanes and acacia plants were seriously damaged.

Fortunately, there were no deaths.

Nguyễn Đức Vinh, director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Hà Giang Province, said the authorities had sent local militia forces to affected villages to help people deal with the consequences and quickly stabilise their lives.

The affected districts were asked to quickly calculate financial losses from damaged agricultural areas and propose measures to compensate for the damages.

Yesterday, the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said a cold spell was affecting the north and north-central regions of the country.

In the northern mountainous provinces, the centre warned there was a possibility of further dangerous weather such as cyclones, lightning, hail and strong winds. — VNS