Floods hit Vietnam’s capital Hanoi as Typhoon Yagi kills more than 150

Thousands of people living near the swollen Red River in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi have been evacuated as its waters flooded streets days after Typhoon Yagi battered the country’s north, killing at least 152 people.
Asia’s most powerful typhoon this year, Yagi brought gales and heavy rain as it moved westwards after landfall on Saturday, collapsing a bridge this week while scythed through provinces along the Red River, the area’s largest.
“This is the worst flood I have seen in 30 years,” Hanoi resident Tran Le Quyen (42) said, adding that she had to move furniture from her flooded home to higher ground. ”It was dry yesterday morning. Now the entire street is flooded. We couldn’t sleep last night.”
The typhoon and subsequent landslides and floods have killed 152 people and left 140 missing, the government estimated.
Some schools in Hanoi have told students to stay home for the rest of the week, while thousands of residents of low-lying areas have been forced to flee, government and state media said.
“My home is now part of the river,” said Nguyen Van Hung (56), who lives in a neighbourhood on the banks of the Red River.
Nearer the city centre, charity Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation had to evacuate its office on Tuesday, after authorities warned of flood risks.
“People were moving frantically, moving their motorbikes, relocating items,” said spokeswoman Carlota Torres Lliro, expressing concern for dozens of children and families living in slum areas and makeshift houses by the river.
Yagi wreaked havoc on many of factories and flooded warehouses in coastal export-oriented industrial hubs east of Hanoi, forcing closures, with some only expected to resume full operations after weeks, executives said.
The disruptions threaten global supply chains as Vietnam hosts large operations of multinationals that ship mostly to the United States, Europe and other developed nations.
Elsewhere, in provinces north of the capital, landslides triggered by heavy floods killed dozens.
In Thailand, at least two people were killed and hundreds stranded after heavy rains swept through two northern provinces, swelling rivers, inundating settlements and triggering mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday. – Reuters
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