A bridge collapsed amid heavy rains in northern Vietnam, associated with Typhoon Yagi. The rains caused landslides, power outages, and at least 21 deaths. The busy steel bridge over the swollen Red River in Phu Tho province collapsed on Monday morning, with ten trucks and cars and two motorbikes falling into the void. Three people were rescued, and at least ten are missing.
Nguyen Minh Hai, who fell into the water, told Vietnam State Television, “I was very scared when I fell. I don’t know how to swim and thought I was going to die.” Pham Truong Son, 50, said he was riding across the bridge on his motorbike when he heard a loud bang. Before he realised it, he found himself falling into the river. “I felt like I was sinking to the bottom,” Son told the outlet, managing to swim and grab onto a tree.
As of Monday, the typhoon has killed 64 people, and heavy rains have damaged factories in northern export-focused industrial hubs, state media reported. Alongside the bridge collapse, a landslide in Cao Bang province swept a bus with 20 people into a swollen stream. Four bodies and one survivor have been recovered. The rest are missing.
The collapse of a bridge in Vietnam is captured by a survivor’s dashcam. Ten cars and trucks along with two motorbikes fell into the river amid ongoing heavy rainfall following a typhoon that caused at least 59 deaths in the country pic.twitter.com/YiKjEOsEB3
— TRT World (@trtworld) September 9, 2024
Dozens of Haiphong province businesses hadn’t resumed production by Monday due to heavy factory damage, according to state-run Lao Dong newspaper. The report said wind had torn off roofs at several factories and water had entered industrial complexes, damaging products and equipment. Some companies said they were still without power and it would take a month to resume operations.
Parts of Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces remained without power on Monday. The two provinces are industrial hubs with many export factories, including electric carmaker VinFast and Apple suppliers Pegatrong and USI. Authorities were assessing damage to industrial facilities, though initial estimates show nearly 100 damaged companies, amounting to millions in losses. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Haiphong on Sunday and approved a $4.62 million package to help the port city.
Typhoon Yagi, the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, made landfall on Saturday with winds up to 149km/h. It weakened to a tropical depression on Sunday, but the weather agency warned of flooding and landslides. Hanoi was cloudy on Sunday, with occasional showers on Monday as workers removed downed trees, billboards, and power lines. Heavy rain continued in northwestern Vietnam, with forecasts of over 40 cm in some areas.
Before hitting Vietnam, the typhoon killed at least 20 people in the Philippines and four in southern China. Chinese authorities reported $102 million in infrastructure losses in Hainan, with 57,000 houses damaged or destroyed, and water and power outages. Yagi made a second landfall on Friday in Guangdong, China.
Storms like Typhoon Yagi “are getting stronger due to climate change.” “Warmer ocean waters provide more energy, leading to increased wind speeds and heavier rainfall,” said Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
The meteorological agency downgraded Yagi to a tropical depression on Sunday, although several districts in Haiphong were under half a meter of water and without electricity, according to AFP.
A study published in July found that typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying more quickly, and staying over land longer due to climate change.
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