A bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away by flooding in Vietnam on Monday, bringing the death toll in the Southeast Asian country to at least 64 due to a typhoon and the subsequent heavy rains.
The severe weather also caused significant damage to factories in northern industrial hubs that are key to the country’s export industry, according to state media reports.
On Saturday, nine people lost their lives when Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Vietnam before weakening into a tropical depression.
The remaining fatalities occurred as a result of the floods and landslides that followed on Sunday and Monday, as reported by state media VN Express. Several rivers in northern Vietnam reached dangerously high water levels.
On Monday morning, a bus carrying 20 passengers was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in the mountainous Cao Bang province. State media reported that four bodies were recovered from the bus, and one person was rescued alive, while the others remained missing.
In Phu Tho province, rescue operations were underway after a steel bridge over the swollen Red River collapsed on Monday morning.
Reports indicated that 10 cars, trucks, and two motorbikes fell into the river. Some individuals were rescued and taken to a hospital, but at least 10 people were still unaccounted for.
Nguyen Minh Hai, who fell into the flooded river, recounted to state Vietnam Television, “I was so scared when I fell down. I felt like I’d just escaped death. I can’t swim, and I thought I would die.”
Pham Truong Son, 50, told VN Express that he was riding his motorcycle on the bridge when he heard a loud noise and suddenly found himself falling into the river.
“I felt like I was drowning at the bottom of the river,” Son said, adding that he managed to stay afloat by clinging to a drifting banana tree until he was rescued.
In Haiphong province, many businesses have yet to resume operations due to extensive damage to their factories.
State newspaper Lao Dong reported that the roofs of several factories were ripped apart, and water seeped inside, damaging finished goods and expensive equipment.
Aftermath of Typhoon Yagi (Photo: Thu Huong)
Some companies reported that they were still without electricity on Monday and anticipated at least a month before resuming production.
Parts of Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces remained without power on Monday. These provinces are industrial hubs with many factories involved in exports, including EV maker VinFast and Apple suppliers Pegatrong and USI.
Authorities are still assessing the damage, but initial estimates suggest that nearly 100 enterprises were affected, leading to millions of dollars in losses, according to the newspaper.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Haiphong city on Sunday and approved a $4.62 million aid package to support the city’s recovery efforts.
Typhoon Yagi was the most powerful typhoon to strike Vietnam in decades when it made landfall on Saturday with winds reaching up to 149 kph (92 mph). Although it weakened on Sunday, the country’s meteorological agency warned that ongoing rainfall could still cause flooding and landslides.
On Sunday, a landslide in Sapa town, known for its terraced rice fields and mountains, resulted in six deaths, including an infant, and injured nine others. State media reported a total of 21 deaths and at least 299 injuries from the weekend’s events.
In the capital, Hanoi, skies were overcast with occasional rain on Monday morning as workers cleared uprooted trees, fallen billboards, and toppled electricity poles. Heavy rain persisted in northwestern Vietnam, with forecasts suggesting that it could exceed 40 centimeters (15 inches) in some areas.
Typhoon Yagi also caused damage to agricultural land. Before impacting Vietnam, Yagi resulted in at least 20 deaths in the Philippines and four deaths in southern China last week.
Chinese authorities reported that infrastructure losses across Hainan island province amounted to $102 million, with 57,000 houses either collapsed or damaged, power and water outages, and roads rendered impassable due to fallen trees.
Yagi made a second landfall in Guangdong, a mainland province adjacent to Hainan, on Friday night.
Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, noted that 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.”
