Typhoon Yagi destroys entire villages leaving 233 dead in Vietnam

Powerful storm triggers multiple landslides and flash floods, displacing 130,000 people from their homes

The most powerful typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades has killed at least 233 people and injured hundreds more after ripping through the country’s mountainous north, burying entire villages.
The south-east Asian nation has been lashed with torrential rains and blistering winds since Typhoon Yagi made landfall on Saturday, triggering lethal landslides and flash floods and forcing 130,000 people from their homes.
While Hanoi was swamped after the Red River reached its highest level in 20 years, the worst hit province has been Lao Cai, which is roughly 160 miles north-west of the capital city close to the border with China.
An entire village in Lao Cai was buried in a landslide and 48 bodies have already been recovered, but 39 people remain missing, according to the state-run VNExpress newspaper.
“Their families are in agony,” Pham Minh Chinh, the prime minister, said after visiting the scene at Lang Nu on Thursday.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by severe damage to the roads, but coffins have been stacked near the disaster site in preparation for the worst.
“It’s a disaster,” Tran Thi Ngan, a Lang Nu villager, told VTV News, as she mourned her lost family members at a makeshift altar. “That’s the fate we have to accept.”
Typhoon Yagi’s colossal deluge has also destroyed more than 250,000 hectares of crops and damaged factories in provinces like Haiphong, which is home to plants that supply Apple and other electronics manufacturers.
Although heavy storms hit southeast Asia annually, a study published in July found that climate change is making typhoons more intense, causing the weather phenomenon to form closer to the coast and linger for longer over land.
The latest typhoon also hit Vietnam’s neighbours, with the Myanmar fire service announcing that at least 36 people have so far been killed and 50,000 forced from their homes.
According to the AFP news agency, hundreds of villagers around the conflict-ridden country’s capital, Naypyidaw, had to wade through chin-high waters to flee severe floods in the area. Further north in Mandalay, one group of villagers rode elephants to escape rising waters.
Meanwhile, in Thailand, the coach of the Wild Boars football team – which captured international attention after they became trapped in a cave for three weeks by flash floods in 2018 – was among those caught out by Typhoon Yagi.
Ekkapol Chantawong and his family were left with no option but to escape to their roof after a flash flood hit his village on Tuesday.
“I was scared but I told myself I have to be calm. Wait and assess the situation,” he told AFP. “We can’t say what will be, but I hope I don’t have to go up on the roof again tonight.”