Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi was devastated as the water levels in the Red River rose to a 20-year high, flooding streets and leaving at least 179 people dead with 145 missing as per the government estimates.
Asia’s most powerful typhoon this year saw huge waves followed by incessant rains as it moved westwards after the landfall on Saturday causing the collapse of a bridge this week.
The intensity of the typhoon can be gauged from the fact that it severely damaged a large number of factories and flooded warehouses in northern Vietnam’s export-orientated industrial hubs, forcing plants to shut, with some expected to take weeks to resume full operations.
As per the government and the state media, some schools in Hanoi had told students to stay at home for rest of the week and thousands of residents in the low-lying areas have been evacuated.
Vietnam Electricity, the national and the sole public power company in Vietnam, said it had stopped the discharge of water from the Hoa Binh hydropower dam to reduce the water flow into the city.
Vietnamese authorities also raised concerns about Chinese hydropower plants releasing water into another Red River tributary, the Lo River, which is known in China as Panlongjiang. The Chinese authorities said both the countries were trying to cooperate on flood prevention.