HANOI, Sept 8 — Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, was downgraded to a tropical depression today after wreaking havoc in northern Vietnam, China’s Hainan, and the Philippines, claiming dozens of lives, according to preliminary reports.
Vietnam’s meteorological agency issued the downgrade but cautioned about the ongoing risk of flooding and landslides as the storm, the strongest to hit the country in decades, moves westwards.
Yesterday, Yagi disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, causing extensive flooding, felling thousands of trees and damaging homes.
The government said the storm has led to at least three deaths in Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million, with these figures being preliminary. Fourteen people have died in Vietnam so far, according to reports, including four from a landslide in the province of Hòa Bình, about 100km south of Hanoi.
A 53-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a tree fell on him in the northern Hải Dương province, state media reported. At least one body was recovered from the sea near the coastal city of Halong, where a dozen people were missing at sea, with rescue operations expected to start today when conditions allow.
Yagi has claimed the lives of four people on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the latest update from local authorities. The civil defence office in the Philippines, the first country Yagi hit after forming last week, raised the death toll there today to 20 from 16 and said 22 people remained missing.
Risk of flash floods
After it made landfall in Vietnam yesterday afternoon, Yagi triggered waves as high as four metres in coastal provinces, leading to extended power and telecommunication outages that have complicated damage assessment, according to the government.
The meteorological agency warned of continued “risk of flash floods near small rivers and streams, and landslides on steep slopes in many places in the northern mountainous areas” and the coastal province of Thanh Hóa.
Relative calm returned today morning to Hanoi, where authorities rushed to clean up streets from toppled trees scattered across the city centre and other neighbourhoods.
“The storm has devastated the city. Trees fell down on top of people’s houses, cars and people on the street,” said 57-year-old Hanoi resident Hoang Ngoc Nhien.
Hanoi’s Nội Bài International Airport, the busiest in northern Vietnam, reopened today after closing yesterday morning.
In Hainan, preliminary estimates suggested significant economic losses and widespread power outages, according to emergency response authorities cited by state-run Hainan Daily.
— Reuters
