Hanoi flooded by swollen river as Typhoon Yagi leaves 179 dead

HANOI: Vietnam’s capital Hanoi evacuated thousands of people living near the swollen Red River as its waters rose to a 20-year high, flooding streets days after Typhoon Yagi hit the country’s north, killing at least 179. people.

Flooding and landslides hit parts of Thailand and Myanmar after Yagi brought days of heavy rain.

“My house is now part of the river,” said Nguyen Van Hung, 56, who lives in a neighborhood on the banks of the Red River in Vietnam.

Across the country, 145 are missing due to the typhoon and subsequent landslides and floods, the government estimates.

Vietnam’s state electricity company EVN said on Wednesday it had cut power to some flooded areas of the capital due to security concerns.

Mai Van Khiem, director of the National Center for Hydrometeorological Prediction, said in a statement that the Red River was at its highest point in two decades and that more rain was expected in the next two days.

Some schools in Hanoi have told students to stay home for the rest of the week, while thousands of low-lying residents have been evacuated, the government and state media said.

“People were moving frantically, moving their motorbikes, carrying objects,” said Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation spokeswoman Carlota Torres Lliro, expressing concern for dozens of children and families living in makeshift houses by the river.

Elsewhere, in provinces north of the capital, landslides triggered by heavy flooding killed dozens.

“The first floor of my house is completely under water,” said resident Thai Nguyen.

“Now we have no fresh water and no electricity,” he said.

Another resident said he had not experienced such flooding in more than 20 years in the area.

“My possessions and probably many others’ are completely gone.”

In Thailand, Yagi has killed at least two people and left hundreds stranded after heavy rains swept across the country and swelled rivers, flooded settlements and triggered mudslides, authorities said Wednesday.

Disaster in the wake of Typhoon Yagi has reached northern Laos, flooding villages and farmland, straining hydropower dams and claiming at least one life, officials, locals and state media said on Wednesday.

The rugged, mountainous provinces of Luang Namtha and Phongsaly have been hardest hit, with footage from state broadcaster Laos National Television which shows residents housed in the upper floors and wading chest-deep in murky brown water.

It is difficult to get a clear picture of the situation in Laos, where the authoritarian communist government tightly controls the information it publishes and state media have heavily emphasized official relief efforts.