HANOI: Hanoi residents waded through waist-deep waters on Wednesday as river levels rose to their highest levels in two decades and the death toll from the strongest typhoon in decades rose to more than 150. Neighboring countries also suffered deadly floods and landslides.
Typhoon Yagi slammed into Vietnam over the weekend, bringing winds of more than 149 km/h and torrential rains that caused devastating flooding in northern parts of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
The Red River in Hanoi reached its highest level in 20 years on Wednesday, forcing residents to wade through waist-deep brown water to rescue belongings from their flooded homes.
Some people built makeshift boats using whatever materials they could find.
“It was the worst flood I've ever seen,” said Nguyen Tran Van, 41, who has lived near the Red River in the Vietnamese capital for 15 years.
“I didn't think the water would rise that fast. If the water had risen a little more, it would have been very difficult for us to leave, so we moved,” Van said.
A landslide hit Lang Nhu, a remote mountain village in Lao Cai province, turning it into a flat patch of mud and rocks, littered with debris and flowing streams.
State media reported that at least 30 people were killed in the village and 65 were still missing.
The villagers laid the bodies on the ground. Some were placed in makeshift coffins, others were wrapped in cloth. The police dug the ground with pickaxes and shovels to find more victims.
Vietnam's state media reported that the death toll from the storm, the strongest to hit northern Vietnam in three decades, had risen to 155 nationwide, with 141 people missing.
It is unclear whether the number includes victims of Tuesday's landslide, according to reports. Access remained difficult after Tuesday's landslide and internet was also down.
Mai Van Kiem, head of the National Meteorological Administration, told state media that water levels in Hanoi's Red River were the highest since 2004.
He warned of serious flooding in the provinces surrounding the capital in the coming days.
Police, soldiers and volunteers helped hundreds of people evacuate their homes from flooded riverbanks in Hanoi in the early hours of the morning as water levels rose rapidly.
A Hanoi police officer who declined to be named said police were moving on foot or by boat to check every house along the river.
“All residents must leave,” he said. “We can take them to public buildings that have been converted into temporary shelters or they can stay with relatives. The rain is so heavy that the water is rising quickly.”
Photos released on Tuesday showed people trapped on rooftops, with victims posting desperate pleas for help on social media, and 59,000 people in Yen Bai province being forced to evacuate their homes.
In neighboring Laos, authorities evacuated 300 people from 17 villages in northern Luang Namtha province, Deputy Governor Sibilai Pankaew said.
He said the Laos-China high-speed railway was not affected by the floods.
Lao Post reported that homes and shops were flooded in the historic city of Luang Prabang, a World Heritage Site and major tourist destination.
State media reported at least one death, and photographs showed rescue workers working through murky brown floodwaters.
Thai authorities said four people had died in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and the army was deployed to help about 9,000 families affected by the floods.
In Myanmar, floods have cut power and phone lines in the town of Tachileik in eastern Shan State, according to residents and local media, with heavy rain forecast for the coming days.
A resident of the village on the Thai border said hundreds of people in Myawaddy, a trade hub on Myanmar's border further south, had fled their homes to higher ground schools and monasteries as floodwaters surged.
Monsoons occur every year in Southeast Asia, but human-caused climate change is intensifying weather patterns, making devastating floods more likely.
A study published in July found that climate change is causing the region's storms to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay over land longer.
