Last Updated on 08/09/2024 by Arun jain
HANOI, Vietnam – At least 14 people have been killed and 176 others injured in Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi slammed into the country’s north, state media said Sunday, as officials warned of heavy rain even as its strength weakened.
Described by Vietnamese officials as the most powerful typhoon to hit the region in the past decade, Yagi left more than 3 million people in northern Vietnam without power. It also damaged important agricultural land, about 116,192 hectares where rice and fruits are mostly grown. Hundreds of flights were canceled after four airports were closed.
The typhoon made landfall in Vietnam’s northern coastal provinces of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong on Saturday afternoon with sustained winds of 149 kilometers per hour (92 mph). It raged for about 15 hours early Sunday morning, gradually weakening to a tropical depression. The Vietnam Meteorological Department predicted heavy rain in the northern and central provinces and warned of flooding in low-lying areas, flash floods in rivers and landslides on slopes.
Municipal workers, along with military and police forces, were busy clearing uprooted trees, fallen billboards, uprooted electricity poles and roofs in the capital, Hanoi, while damaged buildings were assessed.
Yagi was still a typhoon when it blew into the South China Sea from the northwestern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and leaving 26 others missing, mostly in landslides and widespread flooding in the Acripelago nation. It then headed for China, killing three people and injuring nearly a hundred others before landing in Vietnam.
Storms such as Typhoon Yagi “are becoming stronger due to climate change, mainly because warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel storms, leading to higher wind speeds and heavier rainfall,” said Benjamin Horton, director of Singapore’s Earth Observatory. happens.”
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