Typhoon Yagi weakened on Sunday, September 8, and was downgraded to a tropical depression after more than ten deaths were reported in Vietnam, where it caused considerable damage. Yagi, which devastated several regions in southern China and the Philippines this week, killing at least 24 people, made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, with winds exceeding 150 kilometers per hour.
A family of four was killed in a landslide in Vietnam’s mountainous northern province of Hoa Binh on Saturday night, state media reported. The landslide occurred after several hours of heavy rains brought by the typhoon, when a hillside gave way and swallowed a house. The 51-year-old owner of the house escaped, but his wife, daughter and two grandchildren were buried.
According to the Defense Ministry’s Rescue and Assistance Department, in addition to the four victims in Hoa Binh, ten other people were killed, crushed by falling trees, landslides and drifting boats.
Six people, including a newborn baby and a 1-year-old boy, were killed in a landslide in the northwestern city of Sa Pa on Sunday afternoon. The landslide was triggered by heavy rain and strong winds, but authorities have not yet attributed the six deaths to Yagi.
Nearly 3,300 houses destroyed
Vietnam’s meteorological agency downgraded Yagi from a typhoon to a tropical depression on Sunday, as several districts in the port city of Haiphong were under half a meter of water and electricity was cut off.
In Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 70 kilometers from the city, fishermen were reeling from the damage caused by the typhoon on Sunday morning. About 30 boats were badly damaged or sank in Quang Ninh province, near Ha Long Bay.
The typhoon also destroyed nearly 3,300 homes, more than 100,000 hectares of rice and other crops, as well as many aquaculture facilities in the region.
The region is frequently hit by typhoons in summer and autumn that form east of the Philippines and Thailand. But 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.