Typhoon Yagi downgraded, death toll in Vietnam to 21

Photo: Aaron Favila Associated Press The typhoon made landfall in Vietnam’s northern coastal provinces of Quang Ninh and Haiphong with winds of up to 149 kph (93 mph) Saturday afternoon.

Agence France-Presse in Ha Long, Vietnam

Published at 14:26 Updated at 18:06

• Asia

Typhoon Yagi weakened Sunday and was downgraded to a tropical depression after killing 21 people in Vietnam, where it caused widespread damage including landslides.

Yagi, which this week devastated several regions in China and the Philippines, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens, made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, with winds exceeding 150 kilometers per hour.

In Vietnam, it killed 21 people and injured 229, state media reported Sunday evening.

Among the victims was a family of four, killed in a landslide in the mountainous Hoa Binh province in northern Vietnam on Saturday night, a media report said. of State.

The landslide occurred after several hours of heavy rains triggered by the typhoon, when a hillside gave way and swallowed a house, VNExpress reported, citing local authorities.

The 51-year-old owner of the house was able to escape, but his wife, daughter and two grandchildren were buried, and their bodies were found shortly after.

According to the Defense Ministry's Rescue and Assistance Department, several other people were killed, crushed by falling trees, landslides and drifting boats, the ministry said.

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On Sunday afternoon, six people, including a newborn baby and a one-year-old boy, were killed in a landslide in the town of Sa Pa, in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains, in northwest Vietnam.

Vietnam’s meteorological agency downgraded Yagi from a typhoon to a tropical depression on Sunday, as several districts in the port city of Haiphong were under half a metre of water and power was cut off, with lines and poles damaged, AFP reporters said.

In Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the city, fishermen were reeling from the damage caused by the typhoon on Sunday morning.

In the area, about 30 boats were badly damaged or sank in Quang Ninh province near Ha Long Bay, authorities said.

The typhoon also destroyed nearly 3,300 homes, more than 100,000 hectares of rice fields and other crops, as well as numerous aquaculture infrastructures in the region.

Roofs blown away

Roofs of buildings were blown away and motorbikes were overturned by piles of debris, AFP journalists saw.

Pham Van Thanh, 51, said the crew of his tourist boat had stayed on board overnight. “The wind was pushing us from behind, with such pressure that no boat could resist,” he told AFP. “The first one sank.” Then one after another.”

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

Bui Xuan Tinh, lost three boats and his house to the typhoon.

“I have been working in the maritime sector for decades and I have never witnessed an event like yesterday,” Tinh told AFP.

“I got a phone call from my kids at home saying our roof had blown away.” “I didn’t feel anything. What came to my mind was, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’”

Typhoons in the region are now forming closer to shore, intensifying faster and staying over land longer because of climate change, according to a study published in July.