According to officials, at least 127 people have been killed and 54 are missing in northern Vietnam as a super typhoon that arrived on Saturday continues to cause severe rainfall, landslides, and flooding.
Thousands of people were pictured stuck on rooftops in various northern provinces on Tuesday, as others made urgent calls for aid on social media.
Typhoon Yagi, Vietnam’s most violent storm in 30 years, wreaked devastation in the country’s north, leaving 1.5 million people without power.
On Monday, dashcam film captured the moment the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province collapsed, sending many vehicles into the lake below.
Although it has weakened into a tropical depression, authorities warn that Yagi will cause additional disruption as it advances westward.
Phan Thi Tuyet, 50, who lives near the river, told the AFP news agency that she has never seen such high water.
“I have lost everything; it is all gone,” she wailed, cradling her two pets.
“I had to get to higher ground to preserve our lives. We couldn’t take any of the furnishings with us. “Everything is under water now.”
The storm, which had gusts of about 150 km/h (92 mph), wrecked bridges, ripped roofs off houses, devastated factories, and caused severe flooding and landslides, leaving 64 people missing.
Authorities have already issued flood and landslide warnings for 401 communes in 18 northern provinces.
In the early hours of Tuesday, one-story homes in Thai Nguyen and Yen Bai provinces were almost fully drowned, with people waiting for aid on the roofs.
In addition to the dead and missing, flooding and landslides injured at least 752 people, according to ministry of agriculture authorities on Tuesday.
Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi killed 24 people in southern China and the Philippines.
Meteorologists believe that as the world warms, typhoons will have higher wind speeds and more heavy rainfall, while the impact of climate change on particular storms is difficult.
