Super Typhoon Yagi made landfall on the coast of northern Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, state media reported, continuing its devastating path after killing two people and causing widespread damage in southern China. Yagi hit Vietnam’s northern provinces of Quang Ninh and Haiphong, uprooting thousands of trees and sweeping boats out to sea, VNExpress reported.
In Haiphong, metal roofs and billboards flew across the city in the strong wind and heavy rains brought by the typhoon. “I haven’t seen a typhoon of this magnitude in years,” Tran Thi Hoa, a 48-year-old Haiphong resident, told AFP. “It was scary. I stayed inside, having closed all my windows. But the sound of the wind and rain was unbelievable.” “I could even hear the sound of metal roofs breaking and falling into the street,” she said.
20,000 people evacuated
In Vietnam, the typhoon was expected to pass through Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Before the storm, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had called on local authorities to evacuate residents from dangerous areas. He also asked other residents not to leave their homes.
Some 20,000 people have been evacuated and transported to safer, higher-altitude areas in northern Haiphong, Thai Binh and Hanoi, local authorities said. They have been housed in schools, kindergartens and other public buildings. Four airports in the country’s north, including the capital’s Noi Bai International Airport, have been closed and flights have been banned since Friday.
Gusts greater than 230 km/hour
In southern China, Typhoon Yagi left at least two dead and 92 injured on the tourist island of Hainan, known for its sandy beaches and luxury hotels, the day before, according to an initial human toll announced Saturday by the official Xinhua news agency. The typhoon caused heavy rain and wind gusts of over 230 km/h that uprooted many trees. Some 460,000 people had been evacuated to safety on the island, according to state television CCTV.
Television footage showed extremely heavy rain and countless trees uprooted, some falling on cars. In neighboring Guangdong province in southern China, authorities said Friday they had also evacuated more than 574,000 residents to safety. The airport in Haikou, the capital of Hainan in the north of the island, will be temporarily closed until noon Sunday, the Xinhua news agency said. Chinese media footage from parts of Hainan and Guangdong showed extensive damage.
CCTV showed footage of a hotel in Hainan with a devastated lobby, broken computers and piles of metal structures on the ground, with French windows blown away by the powerful wind. In the city of Leizhou in Guangdong, road workers wearing hard hats were clearing scores of fallen trees from the roadway on Saturday, the channel showed.
13 people die in the Philippines
Yagi killed at least 13 people in the Philippines this week, while still classified as a tropical storm. It caused flooding and landslides on the main island of Luzon before strengthening into a super typhoon in recent days. The typhoon then passed within 400 kilometers of Hong Kong overnight Thursday into Friday, bringing heavy rain. The Hong Kong stock market was suspended Friday and schools were closed, but damage was limited.
Southern China is frequently hit by typhoons in summer and autumn that form in warm oceans east of the Philippines and Thailand. But the region’s typhoons are forming closer to shore than before, intensifying more quickly and staying over land longer because of climate change, according to a study published in July.