HANOI: Residents of Hanoi waded through waist-deep water on Wednesday as river levels hit a 20-year high and the death toll from the strongest typhoon in decades topped 150, while neighboring countries also suffered deadly floods and landslides.
Typhoon Yagi slammed into Vietnam at the weekend with winds of more than 149 kilometers per hour and torrential rain that also brought devastating floods to northern Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Hanoi's Red River reached its highest level in 20 years on Wednesday, forcing residents to wade waist-deep in brown water as they retrieved possessions from flooded homes.
Others made makeshift boats out of whatever materials they could find.
“It was the worst flood I've ever witnessed,” 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 as fast as it did. I moved because if the water had risen a little higher, it would have been very difficult for us to leave,” Wang said.
A landslide hit the remote mountain village of Lang Nu in Lao Cai province, flattening it into a flat expanse of dirt and rock, strewn with debris and criss-crossed by streams.
State media reported that at least 30 people were killed in the village, with another 65 missing.
Villagers laid bodies on the ground, some in makeshift coffins, some wrapped in cloth, while police dug with picks and shovels in search of new victims.
Vietnamese state media reported that the death toll from Yaga – the strongest storm to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years – had risen to 155 across the country, with 141 people missing.
It was reported that it was not known if that total included victims of Tuesday's landslide, where access remained difficult and the Internet was down.
Mai Van Him, head of the national weather bureau, told state media that the water level in Hanoi's Red River was the highest since 2004.
He warned of serious widespread flooding in the provinces surrounding the capital in the coming days.
Police, military and volunteers helped hundreds of residents along the banks of a swollen river in Hanoi evacuate their homes in the early hours as water levels rose rapidly.
A police spokesman in Hanoi, who declined to be named, said officers were on foot or by boat to check every house along the river.
“All residents must leave,” he said. “We bring them to community buildings that have been converted into temporary shelters, or they can stay with relatives. It has been raining so much and the water is rising fast.'
On Tuesday, images showed people trapped on rooftops and victims posting desperate pleas for help on social media, while 59,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Yen Bai province.
In neighboring Laos, the authorities evacuated 300 people from 17 villages in the north of Luang Namtha province, said Sivilai Pankaev, deputy head of the district.
He said the Laos-China high-speed railway was not affected by the flooding.
Houses and shops were flooded in the historic city of Luang Prabang, a world heritage site and major tourist destination, the Lao Post reported.
State media said at least one person had died, and images showed rescuers working in murky, brown floodwaters.
Thai authorities said four people died in the kingdom's northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and the army was deployed to help some 9,000 families affected by the floods.
In Myanmar, residents and local media reported that flooding knocked out electricity and phone lines in the town of Tachileik in eastern Shan State, where more heavy rain is forecast.
Further south, hundreds of residents of the Myanmar border trading center of Myawaddy fled their homes to take shelter in schools and monasteries on high ground as the floodwaters rose, a resident of the town on the Thai border said.
Southeast Asia receives annual monsoon rains, but human-induced climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can increase the likelihood of devastating floods.
Typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying faster and staying over land longer due to climate change, according to a study published in July.
