A flash flood on Tuesday swept away an entire hamlet in northern Vietnam, killing 22 people and leaving dozens missing as deaths from a typhoon and its aftermath climbed to 141 yesterday.
Vietnamese state broadcaster VTV said that the torrent of water gushing down from a mountain in Lao Cai Province buried Lang Nu hamlet with 35 families in mud and debris.
Only about a dozen were known so far to have survived. Rescuers had recovered 22 bodies and were continuing the search for about 70 others.
Photo: AFP
The death toll from the typhoon and its aftermath climbed to 141, with 69 people missing and hundreds injured, VTV said.
Floods and landslides have caused most of the deaths, many of which have come in Lao Cai Province, bordering China, where Lang Nu is. Lao Cai is also home to the popular trekking destination of Sapa.
Many roads in the province were blocked by landslides and unrelenting rainfall, Sapa tour guide Van A Po said.
Photo: AFP
The weather has forced them to limit travel with all trekking suspended.
“It is very scary,” he said.
Tourism is a key engine for the local economy and many in the industry found themselves stranded.
Nguyen Van Luong, who works in a hotel, said that he could not return home, as the 15km road from Sapa to his village was too dangerous to drive.
“The road is badly damaged and landslides could happen anytime,” he said. “My family told me to stay here until it’s safer to go home.”
Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall on Saturday with winds of up to 149kph. Despite weakening on Sunday, downpours have continued and rivers remain dangerously high.
In Thailand, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains from the typhoon had claimed four lives and inundated thousands of homes, the government said yesterday.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said that aid was on the way to about 9,000 families hit by the floods in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
The Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said that two people were killed in a landslide in Chiang Mai and two more in Chiang Rai.
“Between September 13-17, please be careful of possible danger caused by heavy to very heavy rainfall,” the Thai Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Additional reporting by AFP
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