Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday, packing powerful winds and torrential rain that killed at least one person and forced tens of thousands to evacuate. Earlier, the storm smashed into southern China, where at least two died.
The typhoon, one of the most powerful to strike northern Vietnam, made landfall at 1:30 p.m. in the coastal province of Quang Ninh near the city of Haiphong, according to the state-run media. On Friday, at least one person was killed in Hanoi, the capital, according to state media.
By landfall, Yagi was equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 127 miles per hour, the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Center said. The storm had rapidly intensified to a Category 4 storm earlier on Saturday before it began weakening over Vietnam.
The storm’s gales sank boats, broke utility poles and uprooted trees in coastal towns near Halong Bay, where fishing communities live on hundreds of small islands that are vulnerable to violent waves, the local news media reported.
Parts of Vietnam were expected to receive over 18 inches of rain in a day, the country’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said. Vietnamese meteorologists raised alarm about the risk of landslides, floods in small rivers and low-lying areas, and storm surges in coastal areas.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of Vietnam on Saturday ordered provinces and cities in northern Vietnam, including Hanoi, a city of 8.6 million people, to make storm preparations, according to state media. The directive included closing schools.
“Strong winds in Hanoi will have a major impact on people’s lives,” said Nguyen Van Huong, head of the meteorological center’s forecast department, according to state media. He advised people to avoid leaving their homes, state media reported.
The authorities in several coastal cities evacuated more than 48,000 people living in vulnerable areas, state media reported.
The storm also disrupted travel in Vietnam. The country’s Civil Aviation Authority suspended flights that had been scheduled at four airports on Saturday.
Yagi was the strongest typhoon in a decade to hit Hainan, where two people died, according to Chinese state media. The storm shook high rises, blew out windows, overturned trucks, felled trees and flooded homes, state media reported. Yagi also washed more than two tons of rocks from the ocean onto the sea wall in Xuwen County in Guangdong Province, according to China Central Television, the state broadcaster.
The Chinese authorities called Yagi “extremely destructive.” More than 830,000 customers lost power and dozens of people were injured in Hainan after the storm made landfall there on Friday. About a million people were evacuated in Hainan and Guangdong provinces.
More rain and strong winds were forecast in southern China on Saturday. China’s National Meteorological Center said that up to 16 inches more of rain would fall in provinces including in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi in a day.
Yagi, which formed last weekend in the Philippine Sea, killed at least 20 people in the Philippines. It then intensified rapidly in the South China Sea and became a super typhoon, a tropical cyclone in the western North Pacific with winds of at least 150 m.p.h.
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