143 killed, thousands evacuate from Typhoon Yagi floods: Vietnam
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The torrent of water flooding down the mountain in the Lao Cai province buried the Lang Nu village and 35 families in mud and debris in Vietnam's Lao Cai Province.
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Local residents are evacuated on a boat through flood waters caused by Typhoon Yagi in Hanoi on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Thousands of residents of Vietnam's capital Hanoi living near the Red River have evacuated following intense floods after Typhoon Yagi struck the country's northern region, raising the death toll to at least 143 people.
The typhoon made landfall on Vietnam's northern coast on Saturday, striking its capital with strong winds and heavy rainfall.
58 people are missing, authorities reported, due to floods and landslides making their way across several provinces in the region, including the Red River which caused a bridge to collapse on Monday.
Yagi caused a landslide through its flash flooding, sweeping away an entire village that killed 16 people and left dozens missing, local media reported Wednesday.
35 families buried under the mud in Lao Cai Province
The torrent of water flooding down the mountain in the Lao Cai province buried the Lang Nu village and 35 families in mud and debris in the Lao Cai Province on Tuesday, state broadcaster VTV reported.
Some schools have informed students to stay home for the rest of the week amid the ongoing flooding, while thousands residing in low-lying areas have been evacuated, according to sources, the government, and state media.
“This is the worst flood I have seen in 30 years,” 42-year-old Hanoi resident Tran Le Quyen told Reuters Wednesday, adding that she had to make higher ground by moving furniture out of her flooded home.
“It was dry yesterday morning. Now the entire street is flooded. We couldn’t sleep last night.”
“My home is now part of the river,” Nguyen Van Hung, a 56-year-old resident of a neighborhood along the Red River, stated.
Typhoon Yagi caused extensive damage to several factories and flooded warehouses in the northern region's export industrial centers, forcing plant closures. Some facilities may take weeks to resume full operations, executives stated.
These disruptions may impact global supply chains, since Vietnam hosts significant operations of multinational companies that mainly export their products to the United States, Europe, and other advanced nations.
Typhoon Yagi hits Vietnam after wreaking havoc in China, Philippines
Yagi had already caused fatalities in other regions, claiming at least two lives in China's Hainan Island and 16 in the Philippines, the first country it struck after forming east of the archipelago last week.
Vietnam’s coastal city of Haiphong, an industrial center with a population of two million and home to factories of multinational companies, as well as local automaker VinFast, was one of the hardest-hit areas. Wind speeds reached up to 90 kph, causing widespread damage.
Authorities reported that as the storm approached, Haiphong and at least three other northern provinces experienced major power outages on Saturday.
Earlier, in Hainan, home to more than 10 million residents, the storm uprooted trees, flooded streets, and caused power outages in over 800,000 households.
Vietnamese authorities evacuated more than 50,000 people from coastal towns and deployed 450,000 military personnel, according to the government. Four airports, including Noi Bai in Hanoi—northern Vietnam’s busiest airport—were shut down for several hours, resulting in the cancellation of more than 300 flights.
High schools across 12 northern provinces, including the capital Hanoi, home to 8.5 million people, were also closed. Authorities there suspended public transportation services, including buses and the city's two elevated metro lines, as a precautionary measure. The meteorological agency warned of heavy flooding risks in the city’s center.
Scientists attribute the increasing intensity of typhoons to warmer oceans, driven by climate change.
