HANOI: Asia’s most powerful storm this year made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, the meteorological agency said, killing at least four people after tearing through China’s island of Hainan and the Philippines.

Super Typhoon Yagi hit island districts of north Vietnam around 1pm, generating winds of up to 160 kph near its centre, having lost power from its peak of 234 kph in Hainan a day earlier.

The government said that as of 5pm four people had died and 78 had been injured by the typhoon. Several were missing at sea, according to state media.

Yagi had already claimed the lives of at least two people in Hainan and 16 people in the Philippines, the first country it hit, having formed east of the archipelago earlier in the week.

The storm cuts power to 800,000 homes in China’s Hainan province

Vietnam’s coastal city of Haiphong, an industrial hub with a population of two million people that hosts factories from foreign multinationals and local carmaker VinFast, was among the hardest-hit by winds with speeds of up to 90 kph.

As the typhoon approached, the city experienced widespread power outages on Saturday, authorities said, as did at least three other northern provinces.

In Haiphong, the strong winds smashed windows and waves were as much as three meters high when they hit the coast, according to a witness. Metal roofing sheets were blown away, pictures and footage on local media showed. The government said thousands of trees had fallen and many houses were damaged across northern Vietnam.

Before hitting the Vietnamese mainland, the typhoon unrooted hundreds of trees on Co To island, about 80 kilometres from mainland Quang Ninh. Several office buildings, schools and houses on the island were unroofed by the powerful winds. Signboards lay scattered around the island, while electrical lines were snapped and tangled by the wind.

Earlier in Hainan, which has a population of more than 10 million, the storm felled trees, flooded roads and cut power to more than 800,000 homes.

Airports closed

Vietnam evacuated more than 50,000 people from coastal towns and deployed 450,000 military personnel, the government said. It also suspended operations for several hours at four airports, including Hanoi’s Noi Bai, the busiest in the north, which cancelled more than 300 flights.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2024