imagine the local fishing boats whose lights you see in the South China sea at night...many of them have no radio
I was living in Saigon in November 1997 when Typhoon Linda struck southern Vietnam. Typhoons in the south are very rare - most of them track northwards into the Gulf of Tonkin. The unexpected path of Linda caught many fishing boats out at sea.
It was the worst typhoon to hit the south of Vietnam in more than a century. 3,500 people (mostly fisherman) were killed, over 1,200 people were injured and 74,000 houses were destroyed.