Vietnam storm deaths rise to 64 as a bridge collapses and flooding sweeps away a bus

A bridge collapses due to floods caused by Typhoon Yagi in Phu Tho province, Vietnam, Monday, September 9, 2024. Photo credit: AP

Flooding in Vietnam on Monday (September 9, 2024) collapsed a bridge and swept away a bus, raising the death toll in the Southeast Asian country to at least 64, with the storm and subsequent heavy rain also damaging factories in export-focused northern industrial hubs, state media reported.

Nine people died on Saturday (September 7, 2024) Typhoon Yagi makes landfall in Vietnam before it weakened into a tropical depression. The rest were killed in floods and landslides on Sunday and Monday, according to state media. VN Express Report.

Water levels in many rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high.

A landslide swept a bus carrying 20 people into a flooded river in the mountainous Cao Bang province on Monday (September 9) morning. State media reported that four bodies were recovered from the bus and one person was rescued alive. Others are still missing.

Rescue operations are underway after a steel bridge over the Red River collapsed in Phu Tho province on Monday morning. Reports say 10 cars and trucks and two motorbikes fell into the river. Some people were rescued from the river and taken to hospital, but at least 10 people are still missing.

“I was so scared when I fell down. I felt like I had just escaped death. I couldn’t swim and I thought I would die,” Nguyen Minh Hai, who fell into the flooded river, told state Vietnam Television.

Pham Truong Son, 50, told VN Express that he was riding his motorcycle across a bridge when he heard a loud noise. Before he knew what was happening, he had fallen into the river. “I thought I was sinking to the bottom of the river,” Son told the news outlet, adding that he managed to swim to shore and stay afloat by holding on to a floating banana tree before being rescued.

Dozens of businesses in Haiphong province have not resumed production because of heavy damage to their factories, state-run newspaper Lao Dong reported. It said roofs of many factories were blown off and water seeped in, damaging finished goods and expensive equipment. Some companies said they still had no electricity on Monday and it would take at least a month to resume production.

Parts of Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces were still without power on Monday. Both of these provinces are industrial hubs, home to many factories that export goods, including EV maker Vinfast and Apple suppliers Pegatrong and USI. Officials are still assessing the damage to factories, but initial estimates showed that about 100 enterprises were damaged, resulting in millions of dollars in losses, the newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Haiphong city on Sunday and approved a $4.62 million package to help restore the port city.

Typhoon Yagi was the most powerful storm to hit Vietnam in decades, when it hit on Saturday with winds of 149 kilometres per hour (92 mph). It weakened on Sunday, but the country’s meteorological agency warned that persistent rain could trigger floods and landslides.

On Sunday, six people, including an infant, were killed and nine others injured in a landslide in the town of Sapa, a popular trekking base known for its terraced rice fields and mountains. In total, state media reported 21 deaths and at least 299 injuries over the weekend.

Skies remained overcast and intermittent rain fell in the capital Hanoi on Monday morning as workers cleared uprooted trees, fallen billboards and downed power poles. Heavy rain continued to fall in northwestern Vietnam, with forecasters saying it could exceed 40 centimetres (15 inches) in some places.

Yagi also caused damage to agricultural land.

Before striking Vietnam, Yagi killed at least 20 people in the Philippines and four in southern China last week.

Chinese officials reported $102 million in damage to infrastructure in the island province of Hainan, with 57,000 houses collapsed or damaged, power and water supplies disrupted and roads damaged or impassable because of fallen trees. Yagi triggered a second landslide on Friday night in Hainan’s neighbouring mainland province of Guangdong.

Benjamin Horton, director of the Singapore Earth Observatory, said storms like Typhoon Yagi “are becoming more powerful due to climate change, mainly because warmer ocean water provides more energy to fuel storms, leading to increased wind speeds and heavier rainfall.”