Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful storm to hit Asia this year, claimed dozens of lives in northern Vietnam and inflicted extensive damage to infrastructure and factories as it moved westward, according to preliminary government assessments released on Monday.
Vietnam's disaster management agency reported that 46 people have died and 22 are missing, primarily due to landslides and floods caused by the typhoon. Yagi made landfall on Saturday along Vietnam's northeastern coast, an area known for its significant manufacturing operations by both domestic and foreign companies. By Sunday, the typhoon had weakened into a tropical depression, but the meteorological agency cautioned on Monday of additional floods and landslides.
Yagi disrupted power for millions of households and businesses, inundated highways, disrupted telecommunications networks, collapsed a medium-sized bridge, uprooted thousands of trees, and brought economic activity in numerous industrial hubs to a standstill. Managers and workers at industrial parks and factories in Haiphong, a coastal city with a population of two million, reported on Monday that they had no electricity and were attempting to salvage equipment from plants where metal sheet roofing had been blown away, with more rain expected.
"Everyone is scrambling to make sites safe and stocks dry," said Bruno Jaspaert, head of DEEP C industrial zones, which host plants from over 150 investors in Haiphong and the neighboring province of Quang Ninh. The walls of a factory in Haiphong owned by South Korea's LG Electronics collapsed, as seen in pictures and confirmed by a Reuters witness. LG Electronics, a major producer of appliances and consumer electronics, stated that there were no casualties among its employees and acknowledged damages at its production site, noting that a warehouse containing refrigerators and washing machines had been flooded.
"Lots of damages," said Hong Sun, the chairman of the South Korean business association in Vietnam, when asked about the typhoon's impact on Korean factories in coastal areas. A manager of leased factories confirmed widespread roof damages and prolonged power outages in northern provinces. A bridge in the province of Phu Tho collapsed on Monday, according to authorities.
"This is normally a busy bridge, a key bridge in the province," a senior official of the province's transport department said, adding that there were no reports yet on casualties. Authorities said their initial investigations suggested there were eight vehicles on the bridge when it collapsed. The weather agency warned of more floods and landslides, and forecast heavy rain and strong winds late on Monday in the capital Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million people.
State-run power provider EVN reported that more than 5.7 million customers lost power over the weekend as dozens of power lines were broken, but electricity was restored on Monday to nearly 75% of those affected.
