Dozens dead after Yagi hammers Vietnam, causing floods, landslides

HANOI: Typhoon Yagi, Asia's most powerful storm this year, left dozens dead in northern Vietnam and widespread damage to infrastructure and factories as it churned westwards, preliminary government estimates showed on Monday.

The death toll in Vietnam from Yagi has jumped to 59, state media reported on Monday. 

The typhoon made landfall on Saturday on Vietnam's northeastern coast, home to large manufacturing operations of domestic and foreign companies. It was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sunday but the meteorological agency warned on Monday of further floods and landslides.

Yagi cut power to millions of households and companies, flooded highways, disrupted telecommunications networks, downed a medium-sized bridge and thousands of trees and brought economic activity in many industrial hubs to a halt.

Managers and workers at industrial parks and factories in Haiphong, a coastal city of two million, said on Monday they had no electricity and were trying to salvage equipment from plants where metal sheet roofing had been blown away, as more rain was expected.

"Everyone is scrambling to make sites safe and stocks dry," said Bruno Jaspaert, head of DEEP C industrial zones, which host plants from more than 150 investors in Haiphong and the neighbouring province of Quang Ninh.

The walls of a factory of South Korea's LG Electronics 066570.KSin Haiphong collapsed.

LG Electronics, a major maker of appliance and consumer electronics, said there had been damage at its production site but no casualties among its employees. It said a warehouse with refrigerators and washing machines had been flooded.

"Lots of damage," Hong Sun, the chairman of the South Korean business association in Vietnam, said when asked about the typhoon's impact on Korean factories in coastal areas.

A manager of leased factories confirmed widespread damage to roofs and prolonged power cuts in northern provinces.

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

"This is normally a busy bridge, a key bridge in the province," a senior official of the province's transport department said, adding there were no reports yet on casualties.

Authorities said their initial investigations suggested there were eight vehicles on the bridge when it collapsed.

The weather agency warned of more floods and landslides, and said heavy rain and strong winds were expected late on Monday in the capital Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million people.

State-run power provider EVN said that more than 5.7 million customers lost power during the weekend as dozens of power lines were broken, but electricity was restored on Monday to nearly 75% of those affected.