Typhoon Yagi kills 59 people in Vietnam

Yagi, the most powerful typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in the last thirty years according to meteorologists, killed 59 people in this Southeast Asian country, according to state media, and injured hundreds, according to the latest official toll.

 

Flooding, power cuts, destroyed houses... Yagi also wreaked havoc in Vietnam, where business representatives on Monday deplored a “disaster” for the region's factories.

 

After claiming several lives in the Philippines and China, the storm, which made landfall on Saturday in the provinces of Quang Ninh and Haïphong before weakening on Sunday, caused bridges to collapse, damaged factories and ripped the roofs off houses, with gusts exceeding 149 km/h. Some 1.5 million people were still without electricity on Monday.

  

In Phu Tho province, northeast of the capital Hanoi, a road bridge broke down on Monday morning, taking several vehicles with it.

  

Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said thirteen people were missing following the accident, according to the VNExpress website. In the neighboring province of Yen Bai, rising waters forced 2,400 households to take refuge in the upper floors of their homes.

 

In some parts of the city of Yen Bai, the water reached a height of one meter. Some 130 locations in 17 cities and provinces across Vietnam are at high risk of flooding and landslides, according to disaster management authorities.

 

In northern Vietnam, power cuts affected 5.7 million customers on Saturday and Sunday, according to national electricity supplier EVN.

 

This region, crucial to the country's economy, is home to factories supplying electronics giants such as Samsung and Foxconn, whose products are then shipped all over the world, via the port of Haifong in particular.

 

The typhoon's passage caused a “disaster” for businesses in the region, Hong Sun, president of the South Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam, told AFP.