HANOI, Sept 11 (Askume) – Thousands of people living near the swollen Red River in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi were evacuated to safer places after it reached its highest level in 20 years and flooded streets just days after Typhoon Yagi devastated the country’s north, killing at least 179 people.
Asia’s strongest typhoon this year, Yagi, made landfall on Saturday and headed west, bringing storms and heavy rain and causing a bridge collapse this week as it crossed the region’s largest province along the Red River.
“My house is now part of the river,” said Nguyen Van Hung, 56, who lives along the Red River.
The government estimated that 179 people had died and 145 were missing across the country as a result of the storm and subsequent landslides and flooding.
Vietnam’s state-run power company EVN said on Wednesday it had cut power to some flood-hit areas of the capital due to safety concerns.
Mei Wenqin, director of the National Hydrological Weather Forecast Center, said in a statement that the water level in the Red River has reached the highest level in two decades and more rain is expected in the next two days.
Some schools in Hanoi have told students to stay home for the rest of the week, while thousands of residents in low-lying areas have been evacuated, the government and state media said.
The Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, a charity near the city centre, evacuated its offices on Tuesday as officials warned of flood risks.
“People are moving fast on motorcycles, shifting belongings,” said spokeswoman Carlota Torres Lero, expressing concern for dozens of children and families living in makeshift homes along the river.
EVN said on Wednesday it had stopped releasing water from northern Vietnam’s second-largest hydropower plant into a major tributary of the Red River to reduce water flow.
Vietnamese officials also expressed concern on Wednesday about Chinese hydropower plants releasing water into the Luo River, another tributary of the Red River , known in China as the Panlong River. Beijing says the two countries are cooperating on flood control.
impact on factories
The Yagi disaster wreaked havoc on several factories and flooded warehouses in the export-oriented industrial hub on Hanoi’s east coast, forcing them to close, with officials expected to resume full operations in a few weeks.
These disruptions threaten global supply chains as multinational companies have large operations in Vietnam, shipping goods mainly to the United States, Europe and other developed countries.
Elsewhere, dozens of people were killed in a landslide triggered by severe flooding in a province north of the capital.
“The first floor of my house is completely flooded,” said Nguyen Duc Tam, 40, a resident of Taiyuan city, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Hanoi.
“We no longer have fresh water and electricity,” he said.
Another resident, Hoang Hai Luan, 30, said he had not experienced flooding like this in the area for more than 20 years.
“My stuff, and probably many other people’s stuff, was completely destroyed.”
There are about 400,000 factories on the outskirts of the city, including a major factory of Samsung Electronics Co. , which ships about half of its global smartphones through Vietnam.
A Askume witness said there were no signs of flooding at the facility on Wednesday.
