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Devastating Super Typhoon Yagi Kills At Least Three In Vietnam
Super Typhoon Yagi slammed into Vietnam’s northern coast on Saturday, killing at least three people, uprooting thousands of trees, sweeping ships and boats out to sea and ripping roofs off homes after wreaking death and destruction across southern China and the Philippines. Yagi made landfall in Vietnam’s northern provinces of Quang Ninh and Haiphong around midday, with winds of over 149 km/h, Vietnam’s National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting said. At least three people were killed when the storm ripped tin roofs off homes in Quang Ninh province, rescue services said. Further inland in Hai Duong province, a man was killed on the street on Friday after strong winds tore down a tree, state media reported. More than a dozen others, believed to be sailors on fishing boats, are missing. Haiphong, metal roofs and billboards flew across the city in the strong winds and heavy rains brought by the typhoon. – ‘Scary’ – “It’s been years since I’ve seen a typhoon of this magnitude,” Tran Thi Hoa, a 48-year-old Haiphong resident, told AFP. “It was scary. I stayed inside, having closed all my windows. But the sound of the wind and rain was incredible,” she said. Before reaching the mainland, the typhoon uprooted hundreds of trees on Co To Island, off the coast of Quang Ninh. Several office buildings, schools and homes on the island had their roofs blown away by the strong winds. Local authorities said the typhoon was the most powerful to hit the island in decades. Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had called on local authorities before the storm to evacuate residents from dangerous areas. Four airports in the north of the country, including the capital’s Noi Bai International Airport, have been closed and navigation has been banned since Friday. – Evacuations – In southern China, Typhoon Yagi killed at least three people and injured 95 others the previous day, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The tourist island of Hainan, known for its sandy beaches and luxury hotels, was particularly hard hit with heavy rain and Winds gusting over 230 km/h uprooted many trees. President Xi Jinping issued “important instructions” following the damage caused by the typhoon in Hainan, Guangdong province and other areas, Xinhua said Saturday. “Relief efforts must be organized quickly and in large numbers to bring relief to the affected areas,” the agency said. Some 460,000 people had been evacuated on the island, and some 574,000 in neighboring Guangdong province. The airport in Haikou, the capital of Hainan in the north of the island, will be temporarily closed until noon Sunday, Xinhua said. Chinese media footage from Hainan and Guangdong showed extensive damage. CCTV broadcast footage of a Hainan hotel with a devastated lobby, broken computers and piles of metal structures on the floor. The typhoon killed at least 20 people as it passed through the Philippines this week, according to a new report from the Disaster Management Council. Twenty-six people remain missing in the archipelago, the source said, with 15 crew members of a fishing boat missing. The typhoon then passed less than 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Hong Kong on Thursday night, bringing heavy rain. Hong Kong’s stock market was suspended on Friday and schools were closed, but damage was limited.Southern China is frequently hit by typhoons in the summer and autumn that form in warm oceans east of the Philippines and Thailand.But the region’s typhoons are forming closer to shore than before, intensifying more quickly and staying over land longer because of climate change, according to a study published in July.bur-srg/ssy/sba/fjb
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