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Typhoon Yagi: Myanmar faces massive flooding, Vietnam cleans up after waters recede
Hundreds of villagers in Myanmar waded or swam through chin-deep waters on Friday, fleeing heavy flooding near the capital Naypyidaw, as Vietnam launched clean-up operations after deadly Typhoon Yagi. Northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have suffered flooding and landslides after Yagi brought heavy rain when it battered the region over the weekend. The latest regional toll is nearly 300 dead, including 233 in Vietnam, where many people are still missing, threatening to increase the death toll. In Myanmar, floods have killed at least 33 people and displaced more than 235,000 people, the junta announced on Friday, adding that communications had been cut off with some areas. The situation is further exacerbating the misery in a country that has plunged into a humanitarian, security and political crisis since the February 2021 coup against the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. In addition, authorities are investigating unconfirmed reports that dozens of migrant workers are missing following landslides in a gold mining area in the central Mandalay region, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said. A resident of Sin Thay, near Naypyidaw, told AFP he had spent the night in a tree with his two children to protect themselves from the rising waters. The water reached the village overnight and “we didn’t have time to escape,” he added. Villagers used boats that they dragged behind them to carry away some of their belongings. – “Very frightening experience” – Soldiers rescued villagers living in the heart of a network of rivers and streams that surround the low-lying capital. Some were forced to wade through muddy waters, while homes and surrounding banana and sugarcane plantations were submerged. “This is the first time I have seen such flooding,” said a man near the village. “We didn’t have time to prepare, it’s a very scary experience.” State media reported that flooding in the region and around the capital caused landslides and destroyed power plants, buildings, roads, bridges and homes. In Mandalay region, villagers used an elephant to reach land unaffected by the floods. – Clean-up operations in Hanoi – In Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, residents with shovels, brushes and hoses cleared debris and mud after floodwaters receded from parts of the city, where the sun was visible for the first time in days. The Red River flowing through Hanoi reached its highest level in 20 years this week as rain from Typhoon Yagi rushed to the sea. “This is the biggest flood I have ever seen, the water is more than a metre high,” Nguyen Lan Huong, 40, told AFP. “The water started to recede yesterday afternoon, so we started cleaning up little by little. But it will take days for our family to fully recover, even weeks.” A total of 130,000 people have been evacuated in northern Vietnam since Yagi hit on Saturday. Many people have yet to return home, while more than 135,000 houses have been damaged, authorities said. The deadliest incident occurred when a landslide destroyed a village in the mountainous province of Lao Cai, killing 48 people. But in a rare bit of good news, eight people who went missing in a landslide have returned safely. Northern Thailand has also been hit hard, with a district bordering Myanmar reporting its worst flooding in 80 years. Authorities said Friday that a landslide in Chiang Rai province had killed 10 people in the kingdom. burs-pdw/alh/lgo/emp/sba/jco
