A day after wreaking havoc in southern China, Typhoon Yagi pummeled northern Vietnam on Saturday, leaving four people dead and at least 78 others injured, Vietnam’s Disaster Management Authority said.
In Quang Ninh province — known for its scenic Ha Long Bay, a major tourist draw — three people died and 58 others were injured, the agency said. In adjacent Hai Duong province, one death was reported, with 20 people injured in Hai Phong province.
“Widespread power outages” were reported in Quang Ninh, Hai Duong and Hai Phong, where Vietnamese automaker VinFast has a large factory. Homes were damaged “or had their roofs blown off” across northern Vietnam, including in the capital, Hanoi, the agency said.
Sea travel was prohibited and roads were closed along the coast as well as in inland areas such as Hanoi, the agency said. People were advised to “limit going out on the streets if not absolutely necessary.” Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority extended its suspension of flights at three airports — including the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi — through Saturday evening because of flooding concerns brought by the storm that meteorologists referred to as a “super typhoon.”
Photos and videos posted on social media showed downed trees, flooded streets and people in ponchos fighting heavy winds and rains on motorbikes. One video published by the television broadcaster in Hanoi showed trucks on an overpass shielding a flock of motorbikes from the fierce winds.
As it struck Vietnam, the storm had wind speeds of about 125 mph, with gusts up to 155 mph, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii — equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
Typhoon Yagi struck the southern Chinese island province of Hainan on Friday afternoon local time before pushing toward Guangdong province on the mainland. Officials in the region said the storm was perhaps the strongest to hit the area in a decade.
Four people died and 95 others were injured in Hainan, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. It reported that the storm caused more than $100 million in damage to infrastructure like highways and waterways. The first country hit by the storm was the Philippines, where at least 16 people have died in the storm’s wake, Reuters reported.
The U.S. Navy’s JTWC said the storm went through an “impressive period of extreme rapid intensification” Wednesday evening. It briefly weakened before regaining strength Friday. The typhoon is the second-strongest storm this year globally, surpassed only by Hurricane Beryl, the Category 5 hurricane that rampaged across the Caribbean in July.
Vic Chiang, Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
