Death toll from typhoon in Vietnam rises to 155: NPR

HANOI, Vietnam – A flash flood has washed away an entire village in northern Vietnam. Thirty people were killed and dozens are missing. The death toll from the typhoon and its aftermath rose to 155 on Wednesday.

Vietnamese state broadcaster VTV reported that the floodwaters that crashed down from a mountain in Lao Cai province on Tuesday buried the village of Lang Nu with 35 families under mud and rubble.

Only about a dozen people have survived so far. Rescue workers have recovered 30 bodies and are still searching for about 65 more.

The death toll from Typhoon Yagi and its aftermath has risen to 155. Another 141 people are missing and hundreds have been injured, VTV reported.

Most of the deaths were caused by floods and landslides, many of them in the northwestern province of Lao Cai on the border with China, where Lang Nu is located. The popular trekking destination of Sapa is also located in Lao Cai province.

Many roads in the province are blocked by landslides and persistent rains, said Sapa tour guide Van A Po. The weather forced them to restrict travel and cancel all trekking tours.

“It’s very scary,” he said.

Tourism is a major driver of the local economy and many in the industry were stranded. Nguyen Van Luong, who works at a hotel, said he could not return home because the 9-mile road from Sapa to his village was too dangerous to drive.

“The road is badly damaged and landslides could occur at any time. My family told me to stay here until it is safe to go home.”

On Monday, a bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away by the flood, killing dozens of people.

In Phu Tho province, the steel bridge over the flooded Red River collapsed, sending ten cars and trucks and two motorcycles plunging into the river. The bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded river by a landslide in the mountainous province of Cao Bang.

It was the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades.

Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades, making landfall on Saturday with winds of up to 149 km/h. Although it weakened on Sunday, heavy rains continued and rivers remain dangerously high.

The heavy rains also damaged factories in the export-oriented industrial centers of northern Vietnam.

Storms like Typhoon Yagi “are becoming stronger due to climate change, primarily because warmer oceans provide more energy to drive the storms, resulting in higher wind speeds and heavier rainfall,” said Benjamin Horton, director of Singapore's Earth Observatory.