Hanoi River Level Hits 20-year High As SE Asia Typhoon Toll Nears 200

Hanoi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Sep, 2024) Residents of Vietnam's capital waded through waist-deep water Wednesday as river levels hit a 20-year high and the toll from the area's strongest typhoon in decades rose to at least 179, with neighbouring nations also enduring deadly flooding and landslides.

Typhoon Yagi hit Vietnam at the weekend, carrying winds in excess of 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour and a deluge of rain that has also brought destructive floods to northern areas of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

The Red River in Hanoi reached its highest level in 20 years on Wednesday, forcing residents to trudge through waist-deep brown water as they retrieved possessions from flooded homes.

Others fashioned makeshift boats from whatever materials they could find.

"This was the worst flooding I have witnessed," said Nguyen Tran Van, 41, who has lived near the Red River in Hanoi for 15 years.

"I didn't think the water would rise as quick as it did. I moved because if the water had risen just a bit higher, it would have been very difficult for us to leave," Van told AFP.

A landslide smashed into the remote mountain village of Lang Nu in Lao Cai province, levelling it to a flat expanse of mud and rocks strewn with debris and laced by streams.

State media said at least 34 people had been killed in the village, with another 46 still missing.

Villagers laid dead bodies on the ground, some in makeshift coffins, some wrapped in cloth, while police with picks and shovels dug through the dirt in search of more victims.

Vietnamese state media said the total death toll from Yagi -- the strongest storm to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years -- had risen to 179, with 145 missing across the country.

- Worst floods since 2008 -

Mai Van Khiem, head of the national weather bureau, told state media that the water level in the Red River in Hanoi was at its highest since 2004.

Forecasters said the waters in Hanoi had peaked and the river level would go down, but Khiem warned of serious widespread flooding in the provinces surrounding the capital in the days ahead.

Police, soldiers and volunteers helped hundreds of residents along the banks of the swollen river in Hanoi to evacuate their homes in the early hours as the water rose rapidly.

A police official in Hanoi, who refused to be identified, said officers were going on foot or by boat to check every house along the river.

"All residents must leave," he said. "We are bringing them to public buildings turned into temporary shelters or they can stay with relatives. There has been so much rain and the water is rising quickly."

Images on Tuesday showed people stranded on rooftops and victims posted desperate pleas for help on social media, while 59,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Yen Bai province.

The United States is providing $1 million in immediate humanitarian aid to Vietnam, its embassy in Hanoi said.