WNAM REPORT: The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.
Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital, Hanoi, were beginning to recede somewhat, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief was in sight.
Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, starting a week of heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam’s mountainous north.
Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.
Most fatalities have come in the province of Lao Cai, where a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu on Tuesday. Eight villagers turned up safe on Friday morning, telling others that they had left before the deluge, state-run sources reported, but 48 others from Lang Nu have been found dead, and another 39 remain missing.
In Cao Bang, another northern province bordering China, 21 bodies had been recovered by Friday, four days after a landslide pushed a bus, a car and several motorcycles into a small river, swollen with floodwaters. Ten more people remain missing.
Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.
