Vietnam ? Vietnam evacuated coastal areas today as tropical storm Mirinae approached after battering the Philippines, where it left 20 people dead.

Mirinae weakened as it headed over the South China Sea and was downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm. It was expected to strike Vietnam’s central coast sometime this afternoon.

Vietnamese authorities evacuated 20,000 people from coastal provinces, far fewer than they moved in advance of Typhoon Ketsana, which slammed Vietnam in September, killing 160 people.

Some 7,600 residents, mostly the elderly and children, have been evacuated from their homes in coastal villages in Khanh Hoa province, said local disaster official Phan Hoang Duong.

In the provinces of Phu Yen and Binh Dinh, north of Khanh Hoa, more than 11,000 people have been evacuated, disaster officials there said.

Light rain was reported in the area this morning.

Both Vietnam and the Philippines are still recovering from Ketsana, which brought the Philippine capital, Manila, its worst flooding in 40 years.

Ketsana and two later storms killed more than 900 in the Philippines. Some 87,000 people who fled the storms were still living in temporary shelters when Mirinae struck.