Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- As Hurricane Sandy lashes the East Coast of the United States with wind and rain , Southeast Asia is dealing with the trail of death and damage from a powerful storm that has killed at least 30 people in the region over the past few days . Superstorm Sandy threatens 'catastrophe ' of a lifetime . Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was moving northeast along the northern Vietnamese coast on Monday after tearing the roofs off hundreds of houses and breaching flood defenses overnight , the state-run Vietnam News Agency ( VNA ) reported . Son-Tinh was at typhoon level when it thumped into northern Vietnam late Sunday with winds as strong as 133 kilometers per hour ( 83 mph ) . It left three people dead and two injured , according to an initial estimate from the Office of the National Search and Rescue Committee reported by ( VNA ) . More than a 1,300 rescue workers and soldiers have been deployed to work with local authorities on search and rescue efforts in the aftermath of the storm , VNA said . Helicopters were on standby for a search and rescue mission for an oil rig with 35 people on board that became disconnected from its towboats miles out at sea amid strong waves generated by the storm , according to VNA . And five people were missing Sunday after winds from Son-Tinh sank an engineering vessel near a cargo terminal in Sanya , a city on the southern Chinese island of Hainan , China 's state-run news agency Xinhua reported . Son-Tinh is expected to gradually weaken over the course of Monday , regional weather agencies said . At least 260,000 people in Vietnam had been relocated to safer areas as it approached Sunday . The storm had already killed 27 people when it swept across the central Philippines during the second half of last week , causing flash floods and landslides , according to the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council . Nine people remain missing , the council said Monday . East Asia is buffeted for several months a year by heavy storms that roll in from the western Pacific Ocean . In August , a big typhoon , named Bolaven , killed more than 60 people on the Korean peninsula .
at least 27 rescue workers have been deployed in Philippines . Helicopters are on standby to search for an oil rig adrift from its towboats . Tropical Son-Tinh had already killed More than a thousand people in the Vietnam .