Typhoon Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in decades, made landfall on Saturday with winds up to 149 kilometres per hour. The typhoon caused nine deaths before weakening into a depression, but the subsequent floods and landslides led to 50 more fatalities. In total, at least 59 people have been killed in Vietnam due to the storm.
Northern Vietnam has been particularly hard hit, with a bridge collapsing and a bus being swept away by flooding on Monday. Rescuers are working to locate missing individuals following these incidents. In Phu Tho province, a steel bridge collapsed over the Red River, with 13 people missing and three injured.
The storm has also caused significant damage to agricultural land and disrupted power supplies, leaving approximately three million people without electricity in Quang Ninh and Haiphong provinces. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has approved a $4.62 million package to aid in the recovery efforts.
Yagi also wreaked havoc in the Philippines and China, causing additional fatalities. Experts attribute the increasing strength of storms like Typhoon Yagi to climate change, with warmer ocean waters providing more energy to fuel storms. Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, warns that such storms may become more frequent and intense in the future.
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