Four days after Typhoon Yagi struck, Vietnam continues to count its losses. The death toll has risen to 226, with floods and landslides in the north of the country, the Vietnamese government announced on Thursday, September 12.
According to UNICEF, the typhoon damaged more than 140,000 homes in 26 provinces across the country. More than 250,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture added in an official report. The previous death toll was 155 on Wednesday. The US Embassy in Hanoi has pledged $1 million in immediate humanitarian aid.
The tropical storm hit northern Vietnam on Saturday and Sunday, with winds gusting over 150 km/h. The deluge of rain also caused destructive flooding in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. Thailand confirmed the deaths of nine people on Thursday, and Myanmar reported 17 deaths. Meteorologists said Yagi was the most powerful typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in three decades.
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Monster floods
People were walking in chest-deep water Wednesday in Hanoi, where the Red River has reached its highest level in 20 years due to Typhoon Yagi. In one suburban area, more than 15,000 people have been affected by flooding. Farmers are bearing the brunt of the typhoon: About 1.5 million chickens and ducks died in Yagi’s wake, as well as 2,500 pigs, buffaloes and cows, according to official data.
Floodwaters in Vietnam are receding, flowing down the Red River – the region’s main waterway – to the sea. Authorities in several districts of the Red River Delta have ordered more than 50,000 people to evacuate their homes as a precaution until the runoff drains. Bridges have been destroyed, roofs torn off and factories damaged by the storm, which made landfall on Saturday.
A landslide in the mountainous province of Lao Cai has killed seven people and left 11 missing, state media reported. The incident occurred on Tuesday but was only just announced because communications were down. In the same province, another landslide wiped out a village of 37 homes, killing at least 42 people, with 53 still missing.
Fifteen bodies have been found in Cao Bang province after a landslide pushed a bus, cars and motorbikes into a river, state media said Thursday.
A thousand people evacuated
In Thailand, the death toll rose to nine, including six in landslides in Chiang Mai province, according to the disaster management department. All flights were suspended at Chiang Rai airport, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Chiang Mai, aviation authorities said. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who has just taken office, was expected to arrive on Friday.
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Further north, Mae Sai district, on the border with Myanmar, is experiencing its worst flooding in 80 years, said Suttipong Juljarern, a senior official at the interior ministry. The Thai military has been mobilized to rescue victims, deploying three helicopters. Buddhist temples, hotels and resorts have taken in nearly 1,000 people who have been forced to evacuate their homes, the government said. The Thai Jet Ski Association has sent 16 jet skis, which are useful in strong currents, to help with the rescue, Dechnarong Suticharnbancha, the association’s president, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In Myanmar, the worst flooding has been reported around the lowland city of Naypyidaw, the junta’s new capital, while the city of Taungu is also threatened by flooding. Rescuers and firefighters have recovered seven bodies from flooded villages in the northern Mandalay region, the fire service said on its Facebook page, adding to 10 others found in the same area on Wednesday.
Myanmar’s junta has set up about 50 camps to house tens of thousands of people affected by the floods, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, director of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Relief and Resettlement, told AFP. Rail services between Yangon and Mandalay have been suspended due to flooding, according to the Global New Light of Myanmarjournal d’Etat.
The Mekong River Commission, an international body responsible for monitoring the crucial waterway, issued a flood warning Thursday for the Laotian city of Luang Prabang, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Before hitting Vietnam, Typhoon Yagi had passed through southern China and the Philippines, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens. According to a study published in July, typhoons in the region are now forming closer to shore, intensifying more quickly and staying over land longer because of climate change.
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