Vietnam saw severe flooding from Typhoon Yagi on Monday, with business leaders describing the storm as a “disaster” for the country’s key manufacturing industry.
According to meteorologists, Yagi was the most destructive typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years, downing bridges, tearing roofs off houses, and damaging factories after making landfall on Saturday with gusts exceeding 149 kilometers (92 miles) per hour.
Power outages and flooding caused significant disruptions to enterprises in northern Vietnam, a major production hub for global brands such as Samsung and Foxconn.
The storm killed 21 people in Vietnam, according to official media, and police said 247 people were injured on Monday.
At least 24 people were killed as Yagi ripped through southern China and the Philippines before striking Vietnam.
On Monday, almost 1.5 million people in Vietnam remained without power, and a key bridge spanning the swollen and fast-moving Red River collapsed in northern Phu Tho province.
According to images on official media, half of the 375-meter Phong Chau bridge had collapsed.
According to the state news website VNExpress, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc estimated that 13 persons were missing.
He stated there were ten automobiles and trucks, as well as two motorcycles, on the bridge when it collapsed.
2,400 residents in the neighboring province of Yen Bai were forced to relocate to higher ground when the water level increased to unsafe levels.
On Monday, floodwaters reached one metre (three feet) high in portions of Yen Bai City.
Disaster officials said 130 areas in 17 cities and provinces across northern Vietnam were at high danger of flooding and landslides.
Blackouts
Across northern Vietnam, 5.7 million people customers were hit by power blackouts on Saturday and Sunday, according to state utility EVN.
Vietnam is a crucial part of the supply chain for some of the world’s most important companies and many key domestic and foreign-owned factories are located in the north.
Hong Sun, chairman of the Korean Chamber of Business in Vietnam, told AFP on Monday that the typhoon had been a “disaster” for businesses, particularly in the area of Haiphong, a port city badly hit by the typhoon.
“During the typhoon there was a blackout situation so some of them had to shut down their factories, which means they had to spend a lot of time and money to reinstall all the machinery,” he said.
Susumu Yoshida from the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the roof of one electronics company had blown off and their products had been flooded.
Among the victims of the typhoon was a family of four killed after heavy rain caused a hillside to collapse onto a house in the mountainous Hoa Binh province.
Six people, including a newborn baby and a one-year-old boy, were killed in a landslide in the Hoang Lien Son mountains of northwestern Vietnam on Sunday afternoon.
Typhoons in the region are now forming closer to the coast, intensifying more rapidly, and staying over land longer due to climate change, according to a study published in July.