64 dead, 229 injured in Asia's most powerful storm in 30 yrs - Vietnam
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3,300 houses and over 120,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed by the powerful typhoon which also sunk 30 vessels.
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A man rides his motorbike past fallen trees on a street after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Hanoi, Vietnam, on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
Typhoon Yagi has killed 64 people and injured 229 others, the Vietnamese Agriculture Ministry's Natural Disaster Prevention Department estimated on Monday.
The ministry previously stated that 49 people were killed by flash floods and landslides after the typhoon passed, VNExpress news outlet reported.
The typhoon, which evolved into a super typhoon on Thursday, has been deemed Asia's most powerful storm to hit the South China Sea in 30 years. Yagi disrupted telecommunications and power supplies in multiple parts of the country, primarily in Quang Ninh and Haiphong, the government reported in a statement issued on Sunday.
“Floods and landslides are damaging the environment and threatening people’s lives,” the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said in a report.
The center highlighted in a separate bulletin that the Lang Son, Cao Bang, Yen Bai, and Thai Ngyen provinces were at high risk of flooding.
Yagi weakened to a tropical depression on Sunday. However, the weather agency warned on Monday of more floods and landslides, adding that rainfall ranged between 208mm and 433mm in several parts of the impacted region within the last 24 hours.
Storm-related deaths and incidents
A family of four was killed by Yagi's heavy rainfall, causing a hillside to collapse on their house in the Hoa Binh province of northern Vietnam, state media reported.
“We found the six bodies, including a one-year-old boy and a newborn, in the landslide,” an anonymous local official from the Sapa people’s committee told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The bodies were found on Sunday afternoon in the Hoang Lien Son mountains of north-western Vietnam after heavy rainfall and strong winds triggered the landslide on Saturday.
“The rain was heavy, weakening the soil and triggering [the] landslide," the official added.
Environmental, property damage
Fishermen were shocked on Sunday morning when they discovered the damage the storm left at Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where 30 vessels sank after enduring strong wind and waves.
Yagi also destroyed approximately 3,300 houses and over 120,000 hectares of crops in the country's northern region, the disaster management authority reported.
The Vietnamese government and authorities are reportedly taking measures to handle the aftermath of the storm, with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh personally overseeing the reconstruction efforts.
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 earlier in the 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.
According to a Reuters eyewitness, strong winds shattered windows and coastal waves surged as high as three meters in Haiphong. Local media showed images and footage of metal roofing sheets being blown away, and the government reported thousands of fallen trees and widespread damage to homes across northern Vietnam.
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.
Just last week, Typhoon Shanshan struck southwestern Japan, marking the most severe storm to hit the country in decades.
