A typhoon raging through northern Vietnam has destroyed bridges, homes, disrupted businesses and left no less than 59 persons dead, according to state media reports.
Nine people died when Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday before weakening to a tropical depression, and at least 50 others have died in the consequent floods and landslides, state media VnExpress reported. The water levels of several rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high.
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A passenger bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province Monday morning. Rescuers were deployed but landslides blocked their path.
A busy bridge in northern Vietnam has collapsed in the wake of super typhoon Yagi, plunging 10 cars and two scooters into the Red River, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said on Monday.
At least three people have so far been rescued and 13 are missing after the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province collapsed, Mr Ho added. It is unclear if there have been any deaths.
Part of the 375-metre (1230 feet) structure is still standing, and the military has been instructed to build a pontoon bridge as soon as possible.
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Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, has killed more than 60 people since it made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday, bringing strong winds of up to 203 km/h (126 mph)
Pham Truong Son, 50, told VnExpress that he was driving on the bridge on his motorcycle when he heard a loud noise. Before he knew what was happening, he was falling into the river. “I felt like I was drowned to the bottom of the river,” Son told the newspaper, adding that he managed to swim and hold on to a drifting banana tree to stay afloat before he was rescued.
The weather agency on Monday warned of more floods and landslides, noting that rainfall had ranged between 208mm and 433mm (8.2 inches to 17 inches) in several parts of the region over the past 24 hours.
“Floods and landslides are damaging the environment and threatening people’s lives,” the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said in a report.
Yagi weakened to a tropical depression on Sunday, but several areas of the port city of Hai Phong were under half a metre (1.6 feet) of water and there was no electricity.
At Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 70km (43 miles) up the coast from the city, the disaster management authority said 30 vessels sank after being pounded by strong wind and waves.
The typhoon also damaged nearly 3,300 houses, and more than 120,000 hectares (296,500 acres) of crops in the north of the country, the authority said.
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