HANOI: Hanoi residents waded through waist-deep water on Wednesday as river levels hit a 20-year high and the death toll from the strongest typhoon in decades rose to over 150. Neighbouring countries were also hit by deadly floods and landslides.
Typhoon Yagi hit Vietnam over the weekend, bringing wind speeds of over 149 kilometers per hour and torrential rains that also caused devastating floods in northern Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Hanoi's Red River reached its highest level in 20 years on Wednesday and residents were forced to wade through waist-deep brown water to rescue their belongings from flooded homes.
Others built makeshift boats out of whatever materials they could find.
“These were the worst floods I have ever experienced,” said 41-year-old Nguyen Tran Van, who has lived near the Red River in the Vietnamese capital for 15 years.
“I didn't think the water would rise that fast. I left because if the water had risen just a little bit higher, it would have been very difficult for us to get away,” Van said.
A landslide rocked the remote mountain village of Lang Nu in Lao Cai province, turning it into a flat expanse of mud and rocks strewn with debris and criss-crossed by streams.
According to state media, at least 30 people were killed in the village and another 65 are still missing.
Villagers laid the bodies on the ground, some in makeshift coffins, some wrapped in cloths, while police dug in the dirt with pickaxes and shovels to search for more victims.
Vietnamese state media reported that the death toll from Yagi – the strongest storm to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years – had risen to 155 across the country, with 141 missing.
According to reports, it is not clear whether this figure includes victims of Tuesday's landslide, during which access remained difficult and internet was disrupted.
Mai Van Khiem, head of the national meteorological office, told state media that the water level of the Red River in Hanoi was at its highest since 2004.
He warned that there would be severe, widespread flooding in the provinces surrounding the capital in the coming days.
Police, soldiers and volunteers helped hundreds of residents on the banks of the flood in Hanoi evacuate their homes in the early hours of the morning as water levels rose rapidly.
A police official in Hanoi, who wished to remain anonymous, said officers would travel on foot or by boat to check every house along the river.
“All residents must leave,” he said. “We are taking them to public buildings that have been converted into emergency shelters, or they can stay with relatives. It has rained so much and the water is rising quickly.”
On Tuesday, images showed people stranded on rooftops and victims posted desperate cries for help on social media, while 59,000 people in Yen Bai province were forced to flee their homes.
In neighboring Laos, authorities evacuated 300 people from 17 villages in the northern province of Luang Namtha, said deputy district chief Sivilai Pankaew.
He said the Laos-China high-speed railway line was not affected by the floods.
In the historic city of Luang Prabang – a world heritage site and major tourist destination – homes and shops were flooded, the Lao Post reported.
State media reported that at least one person had been killed and images showed rescue workers working in the murky, brown floodwaters.
Thai authorities said four people were killed in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai and the army had been deployed to help about 9,000 families affected by the floods.
In Myanmar, residents and local media reported that flooding had knocked out power and telephone lines in the city of Tachileik in eastern Shan State. Further heavy rains were forecast there.
Further south, hundreds of residents of the commercial center on the border with Myanmar (Burma) left their homes in the face of rising floodwaters and sought shelter in higher-elevation schools and monasteries, said a resident of the city on the border with Thailand.
Southeast Asia experiences monsoon rains every year, but human-induced climate change is leading to more intense weather patterns that can increase the likelihood of destructive floods.
According to a study published in July, due to climate change, typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying faster and staying over land longer.
