Typhoon Yagi weakens after claiming lives, wreaking havoc in Vietnam, China and Philippines

HANOI – Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm in 2024, was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sept 8 after wreaking havoc in northern Vietnam,

China’s Hainan

and the Philippines, claiming dozens of lives.

Vietnam’s meteorological agency issued the downgrade on Sept 8 but cautioned about the ongoing risk of flooding and landslides as the storm, the strongest to hit the country in decades, moves westwards.

On Sept 7, Yagi – packing winds exceeding 149kmh – disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, causing extensive flooding, felling thousands of trees and damaging homes.

The typhoon and subsequent landslides killed 18 people in Vietnam with many still reportedly missing at sea, according to preliminary estimates from the government and state media, after claiming the lives of four people on the southern Chinese island of Hainan and 20 in the Philippines, the first country it hit.

In Haiphong, a Vietnamese coastal city of 2 million which hosts factories of several multinationals, industrial parks remained closed on Sept 8, workers and managers told Reuters.

One was flooded, and workers said they had been sent home after they tried to go to work unaware of the conditions at their plants because telecommunications networks had not been restored.

“The damage for the factories is really significant. Some have lost roofs or entire front facades,” said Mr Bruno Jaspaert, head of Deep C Industrial Zones, which host plants from over 150 investors in Haiphong and the neighbouring province of Quang Ninh.

He said at least 80 per cent of the factories had been damaged, but the industrial parks had not been flooded.

“It might take a month if things go well before I fully recover from this damage,” said Mr Do Van Truong, a 45-year-old shop owner in Haiphong, noting the ceiling of his seafood shop had collapsed while power and water supplies had not yet been restored.

Several highways in the north of the country were flooded or seriously disrupted, state media reported, publishing pictures and footage of landslides.

Some areas of the port city of Hai Phong were under half a metre of flood waters on Sept 8, and electricity was out, with power lines and electric poles damaged.

At Ha Long Bay, a Unesco World Heritage Site about 70km up the coast from the city, fishermen were in shock as they examined the damage on the morning of Sept 8.

At least 23 boats were seriously damaged or sunk at the Hai Au boat lock on Tuan Chau Island, according to local residents.

Rooftops of buildings were blown off and motorbikes were left toppled over in piles of building rubble and glass.

Mr Pham Van Thanh, 51, a crew member of a tourist boat, said all the vessel’s crew remained on board since Sept 6 to prevent it from sinking.

“The wind was pushing from our back, with so much pressure that no boat could stand,” he said.

“Then the first one sank. Then one after another.

“I have been a sailor for more than 20 years and have never experienced such a strong and violent typhoon,” he said.

Yagi has also claimed the lives of four people on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the latest update from the local authorities.

The civil defence office in the Philippines, the first country Yagi hit after landing last week, raised the death toll there on Sept 8 to 20 from 16, and said 22 people remained missing.

Relative calm returned on the morning of Sept 8 to Hanoi, where the authorities rushed to clean up streets from toppled trees scattered across the city centre and other neighbourhoods.

“The storm has devastated the city.

“Trees fell down on top of people’s houses, cars and people on the street,” said 57-year-old Hanoi resident Hoang Ngoc Nhien.

Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport, the busiest in northern Vietnam, reopened on Sept 8 after closing on the morning of Sept 7.

In Hainan, preliminary estimates suggested significant economic losses and widespread power outages, according to the emergency response authorities cited by state-run Hainan Daily.
REUTERS, AFP