Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Mirinae killed dozens of people and damaged more than 2,500 houses in south-central Vietnam yesterday after making landfall and moving into Cambodia as a tropical depression.

The typhoon also submerged 961 hectares (2,374 acres) of rice and 831 hectares of other crops in Vietnam, and sank 27 fishing boats, the National Committee for Flood and Storm Control said today.

The Associated Press put Vietnam’s death toll at 23, while Agence France-Presse said 40 had died. River levels in the central and southern regions and the northern part of the Central Highlands are rising fast and people should be wary of flooding and landslides, according to a statement on the committee’s Web site.

The nation is still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which smashed parts of central Vietnam in September, killing at least 163 people and causing 14.3 trillion dong ($801 million) in damage, according to the committee. Many roads are still inaccessible, relief organization World Vision said in an e- mailed statement.

Before Mirinae hit, local governments evacuated more than 27,000 people and issued an alert for more than 18,100 ships with almost 104,000 crewmembers to take shelter or navigate out of the storm’s expected path, the committee said. Thirty-eight domestic flights were canceled yesterday because of the storm, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

Vietnam is the world’s second-biggest exporter of rice and biggest producer of robusta coffee. The typhoon yesterday caused heavy rains in the southern part of the Central Highlands, which is the country’s main coffee-growing region. The main rice production areas weren’t in the storm’s path.

Mirinae passed across the Philippine capital, Manila, and southern Luzon Nov. 1, leaving 14 people dead and four missing, according to the country’s National Disaster Coordinating Council.

To contact the reporter for this story: Van Nguyen in Ho Chi Minh City at vnguyen23@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 08:53 EST