Posted: 2024-09-08 12:07:40

At least 14 people have died and 176 others injured in Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi slammed the country's north, as officials warned of heavy downpours despite its waning power.

The typhoon had left a trail of destruction and two dozen people dead across southern China and the Philippines before it ravaged Vietnam.

A family of four was killed on Sunday after heavy rain caused a hillside to give way and collapse onto a house in the mountainous Hoa Binh province of northern Vietnam, according to state media. 

Since Friday, ten others have been killed in storm-related incidents, some crushed by falling trees or drifting boats, the defence ministry's disaster management agency said.

Described by Vietnamese officials as one of the most powerful typhoons to hit the region over the last decade, Yagi left more than three million people without electricity in northern Vietnam.

It also damaged vital agricultural land and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights after four airports were closed.

Trees lay in the street and a two-storey property's roof shows significant damage in the aftermath of a storm

Clean-up efforts are ongoing in many parts of Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi.   (Minh Quyet/VNA via AP)

The typhoon made landfall in Vietnam's northern coastal provinces of Quang Ninh and Haiphong with wind speeds of up to 149 kilometres per hour on Saturday afternoon.

It raged for roughly 15 hours before gradually weakening into a tropical depression early Sunday morning.

Vietnam's meteorological department predicted heavy rain in northern and central provinces and warned of floods in low-lying areas, flash floods in streams and landslides on steep slopes.

Municipal workers along with army and police forces were busy in the capital, Hanoi, clearing uprooted trees, fallen billboards, toppled electricity poles and rooftops that were swept away, while assessing damaged buildings.

Iron roofs poke out from muddy brown flood-water in a valley covered with green terraces

Houses and agricultural land have been hit hard by flooding in areas like Bai province.   (Do Tuan Anh/ VNA via AP)

Yagi was still a storm when it blew out of the north-west of the Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 20 people dead and 26 others missing mostly in landslides and widespread flooding in the archipelago nation.

It then made its way to China, killing three people and injuring nearly a hundred others, before landing in Vietnam.

Storms like Typhoon Yagi were "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.

AP/AFP/ABC

View More
  • 0 Comment(s)
Captcha Challenge
Reload Image
Type in the verification code above