Hanoi: Hanoi residents waded through waist-deep water on Wednesday as river levels hit a 20-year high and the death toll from the strongest typhoon in a decade topped 150, with neighboring countries also enduring deadly floods and landslides.
Typhoon Yagi hit Vietnam at the weekend, bringing winds in excess of 149 kilometers per hour and deluge of rain that also brought devastating floods to northern regions of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Hanoi's Red River reached its highest level in 20 years on Wednesday, forcing residents to wade through waist-deep brown water as they retrieved possessions from flooded homes.
Others made makeshift boats from whatever materials they could find.
“It was the worst flooding I've ever witnessed,” said Nguyen Tran Van, 41, who has lived near the Red River in the Vietnamese capital for 15 years.
“I didn't think the water would rise as fast as it did. I moved because if the water rose just a little bit higher it would be very difficult for us to leave,” Van said.
A landslide hit the remote mountain village of Lang Nu in Lao Cai province, flattening it into a flat area of mud and rock, strewn with debris and criss-crossed by streams.
State media said at least 30 people were killed in the village, with another 65 still missing.
Villagers laid dead bodies on the ground, some in makeshift coffins, some wrapped in cloth, while police dug through the dirt with picks and shovels, searching for more victims.
Vietnamese state media said the death toll from Yagi – the strongest storm to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years – had risen to 155 across the country, with 141 missing.
It was unclear if that total included victims of Tuesday's landslide, where access was still difficult and internet was cut, reports said.
Mai Van Khiem, head of the National Meteorological Bureau, told state media that the water level in Hanoi's Red River was the highest since 2004.
He warned of serious widespread flooding in the provinces surrounding the capital in the coming days.
Police, soldiers and volunteers helped hundreds of residents along the banks of a flooded river in Hanoi evacuate their homes in the early hours of the morning as water levels rose rapidly.
A Hanoi police official, who declined to be named, said officers went on foot or by boat to check every house along the river.
“All residents must leave,” he said. “We take them to public buildings converted into temporary shelters or they can stay with relatives. It has rained so much and the water is rising fast.”
On Tuesday, images showed people stranded on rooftops and victims making desperate pleas for help on social media, while 59,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Yen Bai province.
In neighboring Laos, authorities evacuated 300 people from 17 villages in northern Luang Namtha province, said Deputy District Chief Sivilai Pankaew.
According to him, the Laos-China high-speed railway was not affected by the floods.
In the historic city of Luang Prabang – a World Heritage Site and a major tourist destination – houses and shops were flooded, the Lao Post reported.
State media said at least one person had been killed and images showed rescuers working in murky brown floods.
Thai authorities said four people were killed in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and the army was deployed to help some 9,000 families affected by the floods.
In Myanmar, residents and local media said flooding knocked out power and telephone lines in the town of Tachileik in eastern Shan state, where more heavy rain was forecast.
Further south, hundreds of residents of Myanmar's border trading hub of Myawaddy left their homes to take refuge in schools and monasteries on higher ground as floodwaters rose, a resident of the town, which straddles the Thai border, said.
Southeast Asia experiences annual monsoon rains, but human-induced climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can increase the likelihood of devastating floods.
Typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying faster and staying over land longer due to climate change, according to a study published in July.