Asia’s strongest storm this year causes devastating damage in Vietnam

Typhoon Yagi, Asia's most powerful storm this year, has killed dozens of people and caused widespread damage as it moved westward in northern Vietnam, preliminary government estimates showed on Monday. The weather agency also warned of further flooding and landslides.

Vietnam's disaster management agency said 35 people had died and 24 were missing, mainly due to landslides and floods caused by the typhoon.

The typhoon reached the northeast coast of Vietnam on Saturday, where large production facilities of domestic and foreign companies are located, and was downgraded to a tropical depression by the weather service on Sunday.

Millions of homes and businesses were cut off from electricity, highways were flooded, telecommunications networks were disrupted, a medium-sized bridge and thousands of trees were downed, and economic activity in many industrial centers came to a standstill.

Managers and workers at industrial parks and factories in Haiphong, a coastal city of 2 million people, said Monday they had no power and were trying to save equipment from rain at plants whose tin roofs had been blown away.

“Everyone is doing their best to keep the sites safe and supplies dry,” says Bruno Jaspaert, head of the DEEP C industrial zones, which house factories owned by more than 150 investors in Haiphong and neighboring Quang Ninh province.

Pictures and a Reuters witness show that the walls of a factory belonging to South Korean company LG Electronics (066570.KS) (opens new tab) in Haiphong have collapsed.

LG Electronics, a major maker of home appliances and consumer electronics, said there were no casualties among its employees. The company acknowledged damage to its manufacturing facility and noted that a warehouse containing refrigerators and washing machines was flooded.

“Great damage,” said Hong Sun, chairman of the South Korean Business Association in Vietnam, when asked about the typhoon's impact on Korean factories in coastal areas.

A manager of leased factories confirmed widespread roof damage and prolonged power outages in the northern provinces.

A bridge collapsed in Phu Tho province on Monday, authorities said.

“This is normally a busy bridge, one of the most important bridges in the province,” said a senior official at the provincial transport department, adding that there were no reports of casualties yet.

The weather agency warned of further flooding and landslides, noting that several parts of the northern region had received rainfall ranging from 208 to 433 millimetres (8.2 to 17.1 inches) in the past 24 hours.

State-owned energy company EVN said more than 5.7 million customers were without power over the weekend due to power outages in dozens of lines. However, power supply was restored to almost 75 percent of those affected on Monday.