UPDATE 1-Tropical storm Saudel threatens Vietnam after soaking Philippines

(Recasts with Vietnam's preparations for storm)
By Phuong Nguyen and Neil Jerome Morales
HANOI/MANILA, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Vietnam scrambled to
evacuate thousands of people from their homes as tropical storm
Saudel approached on Wednesday, bringing more misery for a
country that has endured weeks of heavy rains and floods that
have killed over 100 people.
Having already battered the Philippines, the storm was
grinding its way across the South China Sea and was expected to
hit Vietnam on Sunday, making landfall in central areas that are
suffering from their worst flooding in two decades.
"The damage will be immense if we are not well prepared as
the projected impact area has already suffered from floods and
landslides," Mai Van Khiem, chief of Vietnam's weather agency
said in a statement.
The region has been hit by particularly heavy rainfall amid
the onset of a La Niña weather system, which is characterised by
unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
In the Philippines, photographs showed widespread flooding
and boats used to ferry residents to dry ground in Quezon
province, southeast of the capital Manila.
Humanitarian groups have warned that the floods in Vietnam
will exacerbate the hardships already being suffered by some of
the country's poorest communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Delivering food to some of the most badly affected areas has
become difficult, and photographs and television images of
floodwaters almost completely submerging rural homesteads has
unleashed an outpouring of donations for aid.
Volunteers across Vietnam have been making highly calorific
"banh chung", a traditional dish made from parcels of sticky
rice stuffed with pork and wrapped in tropical leaves, to be
handed out in the worst-hit areas.

($1 = 23,178.0000 dong)