Two separate weather events brought disaster and flooding to parts of southern Asia. On the 12th of June 2004, tropical storm Chanthu became a typhoon in the South China Sea and came ashore over central Vietnam. The storm left seven people dead, mostly fishermen, and seven more missing. At the same time, a strong monsoon depression in the Bay of Bengal wrecked havoc on local fishermen. The storm generated large waves that capsized numerous fishing boats. At least 14 fishermen drowned with many more still unaccounted for. The depression then passed over the east coast of India dumping torrential rains along the coast.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite which was launched in November of 1997 uses both passive and active sensors to measure rainfall over the global tropics from space. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi- satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center provides quantitative rainfall estimates over the global tropics. MPA rainfall totals are shown for the period 10-15 June 2004 from central India through the Indo-China peninsula. Scattered red areas along the coast of Vietnam indicate rainfall totals in excess of 14 inches as a result of Typhoon Chanthu. Meanwhile, the large red area along the east coast of India shows were between 16 and 24 inches of rain (darker red areas) fell as a result of the monsoon depression.