Rescue workers search for the missing ones after a flash flood buries a hamlet in mud and debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi in Lao Cai province, Vietnam, on September 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

“The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon Yagi in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday (September 13, 2024) as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods,” state media reported.

State-run broadcaster VTV said emergency crews have now recovered 48 bodies from the area of Lang Nu, a small village in northern Lao Cai province that was swept away in a deluge of water, mud and debris from mountains on Tuesday (September 10, 2024). Another 39 people are still missing. Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.

Also read: Typhoon Yagi: 143 dead, 58 missing after powerful storm hits Vietna

Typhoon Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall on Saturday (September 7, 2024) with winds of up to 149 kph (92 mph). Though it had weakened by Sunday, downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high.

Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring heavy equipment in to aid in the rescue effort.

Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday (September 12, 2024), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing. “Their families are in agony,” Mr. Chinh said.

In a sign of hope, eight people from two Lang Nu households were found safe on Friday morning, state-run VNExpress newspaper reported. They had been out of the area at the time when the flash flood hit.

People wade through flood waters on a boat in Hanoi on September 12, 2024, as heavy rains in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi brought flooding to northern Vietnam.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Nearly 200 people have died in Vietnam in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi and more than 125 are missing as flash floods and landslides take their toll, state media reported Thursday (September 12, 2024).

Vietnam’s VnExpress newspaper reported that 197 people have died and 128 are still missing, while more than 800 have been injured.

In the capital, flood waters from the Red River receded slightly but many areas were still inundated.

In Hanoi’s Tay Ho district, people waded through muddy brown water above their knees to make their way along one street, some still wearing their bicycle and motorcycle helmets after abandoning their vehicles along the way.

A few paddled along the road in small boats as empty water bottles, a stryofoam cooler and other flotsam drifted by; one man pushed his motorbike toward drier ground in an aluminum sloop.

Pedestrians hiked up their shorts as high as possible to avoid being soaked by the wake caused by a delivery truck powering its way through the water.

Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall Saturday (September 7, 2024), with winds of up to 149 kph (92 mph). Despite weakening on Sunday (September 8, 2024), downpours continued, and rivers remain dangerously high.

The flooding in Hanoi has been reportedly the worst in two decades, and has led to widespread evacuations.

The death toll spiked earlier in the week as a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in northern Vietnam’s Lao Cai province Tuesday.

Hundreds of rescue personnel worked tirelessly Wednesday (September 11, 2024) to search for survivors, but as of Thursday morning, 53 villagers remained missing, VnExpress reported, while seven more bodies were found, bringing the death toll there to 42.

Floods and landslides have caused most of the deaths, many of which have come in the northwestern Lao Cai province, bordering China, where Lang Nu is located. Lao Cai province is also home to the popular trekking destination of Sapa.

Also Read: What causes landslides? Can we predict them to save lives?

On Monday (September 9, 2024), a bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away by flooding, killing dozens of people.

The steel bridge in Phu Tho province over the engorged Red River collapsed, sending 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes into the river. The bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province.

Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.

A bridge collapse due to floods triggered by typhoon Yagi in Phu Tho province, Vietnam on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP

A bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away by flooding in Vietnam on Monday (September 9, 2024), raising the death toll in the Southeast Asian country to at least 64 from a typhoon and subsequent heavy rains that also damaged factories in export-focused northern industrial hubs, state media reported.

Nine people died on Saturday (September 7, 2024) after Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Vietnam before weakening into a tropical depression. The rest died in the floods and landslides that followed on Sunday and Monday, state media VN Express reported.

The water levels of several rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high.

A bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province on Monday (September 9) morning. State media said four bodies were recovered from the bus and one person was rescued alive. The others were still missing.

In Phu Tho province, rescue operations were continuing after a steel bridge over the engorged Red River collapsed Monday morning. Reports said 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes fell into the river. Some people were pulled out of the river and taken to a hospital, but at least 10 people were still missing.

Nguyen Minh Hai, who fell into the flooded river, told state Vietnam Television, “I was so scared when I fell down. I felt like I’ve just escaped death. I can’t swim and I thought I would die.”

Pham Truong Son, 50, told VN Express that he was driving on the bridge on his motorcycle when he heard a loud noise. Before he knew what was happening, he was falling into the river. “I felt like I was drowning at the bottom of the river,” Son told the news outlet, adding that he managed to swim and hold on to a drifting banana tree to stay afloat before he was rescued.

Dozens of businesses in Haiphong province haven’t resumed production because of extensive damage to their factories, state newspaper Lao Dong reported. It said the roofs of several factories were blown apart and water seeped inside, damaging finished goods and expensive equipment. Some companies said they still didn’t have electricity on Monday and that it would take at least a month to resume production.

Parts of Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces were still without power on Monday. The two provinces are industrial hubs, housing many factories that export goods, including EV maker VinFast and Apple suppliers Pegatrong and USI. Authorities are still assessing the damage to factories, but initial estimates showed that nearly 100 enterprises were damaged, resulting in millions of dollars in losses, the newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Haiphong city on Sunday and approved a $4.62 million package to help the port city recover.

Typhoon Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades when it made landfall Saturday with winds up to 149 kph (92 mph). It weakened Sunday, but the country’s meteorological agency warned that continuing downpours could cause floods and landslides.

On Sunday, a landslide killed six people including an infant and injured nine others in Sapa town, a popular trekking base known for its terraced rice fields and mountains. Overall, state media reported 21 deaths and at least 299 people injured from the weekend.

Skies were overcast in the capital, Hanoi, with occasional rain Monday morning as workers cleared uprooted trees, fallen billboards and toppled electricity poles. Heavy rain continued in northwestern Vietnam and forecasters said it could exceed 40 centimeters (15 inches) in places.

Yagi also damaged agricultural land.

Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi caused at least 20 deaths in the Philippines last week and four deaths in southern China.

Chinese authorities said infrastructure losses across Hainan island province amounted to $102 million with 57,000 houses collapsed or damaged, power and water outages and roads damaged or impassable due to fallen trees. Yagi made a second landfall in Guangdong, a mainland province neighboring Hainan, on Friday night.

Storms like Typhoon Yagi are “getting stronger due to climate change, primarily because warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel the storms, leading to increased wind speeds and heavier rainfall,” said Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.