Supertyphoon Yagi: Vietnam death toll hits 143 and rising amid non-stop rain

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The number of people across Vietnam killed by landslides and flash floods from supertyphoon Yagi hit 143 Wednesday and was expected to keep rising amid ongoing impacts from the weather system days after being downgraded, the government said.

More than 700 people were injured and 149 remain missing, including eight from the collapse of a road bridge over the Red River in Phu Tho province in the north of the country, as unrelenting rains left over from Yagi triggered further landslides in remote villages and flooding Hanoi, the capital.

"Storms and floods have collapsed, washed away and flooded thousands of houses, in some places entire villages, thousands of hectares of rice and crops were flooded, many structures were swept away, causing hundreds of billions of dong in damage," the Ministry of Public Security said in a news release .

It said disaster response efforts were being hampered by roads that were underwater, damaged or cut off.

Launching cross-government plans to support people impacted by Yagi, the ministry announced the mobilization of a 5,000-strong response force of police officers and troops across affected areas of the north to rescue people, prevent further damage and maintain law and order.

"The Public Security officials of units and localities have proactively evacuated and relocated people; arranged officers and soldiers to ensure security and order; and closely coordinated with functional forces for search and rescue," it said.

The ministry said that among the 292 killed or missing were public security officers and armed forces personnel lost in the line of duty trying to rescue people and protect the property of people and the state.

Lao Cai province in the far north of the country suffered the highest casualty toll with 45 killed and many still unaccounted for. The worst single incident in the province was in Sa Pa, a popular hiking resort on the China border, where six people including a newborn baby and a 1-year-old boy were confirmed to have been killed in a landslide.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi issued an emergency weather alert for American citizens urging them to seek secure shelter and not to travel to storm-affected areas and in particular the provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Thai Nguyen, and Cao Bang.

"The Embassy continues to monitor the devastating impact and resulting hazards from super typhoon Yagi, and we want to ensure U.S. citizens are aware of the continued dangers in the affected areas," it said.

Felled trees, downed power lines, damaged roads, flooding, and landslides have rendered many roads impassable and/or unsafe. Please follow local government officials' guidance and monitor the local news when traveling, especially in mountainous areas."

Yagi, the most powerful typhoon to hit Vietnam in three decades made landfall on Saturday packing 125 mph winds, ripping off roofs, uprooting trees and cutting power across the north of the country including in Hanoi.

It was downgraded to a tropical depression late Sunday but the deluge has not eased inundating the Red River valley, one of Southeast Asia's most densely-populated and industrialized river basins, with the waters rising by four inches an hour as of Tuesday.

That has triggered fears about the country's ability to withstand ever more powerful storms fueled by climate change.

In Haiphong and Quang Ninh, where Yagi made first landfall, people reported widespread damage with experts suggesting it would probably emerge as the largest natural disaster in a generation.

However, the fallout could push Vietnam to begin to take the threats it faces from climate change more seriously.

"I think a major long-term impact will be psychological, which can cause some changes in policy," Professor Alexander Vuving of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu told the New York Times.