Impact of Typhoon Yagi: A Review of the Devastation

On September 28th, during a government evaluation session concerning Typhoon Yagi, Le Minh Hoan, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, reported on the severe economic and human losses caused by the storm.

Typhoon Yagi struck on September 7th in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong, packing winds of 12-14 on the Beaufort scale, accompanied by heavy rains throughout northern Vietnam. The storm resulted in 344 deaths and several people reported missing.

The typhoon wreaked havoc on infrastructure, with almost 282,000 homes either damaged or stripped of roofs, and over 112,000 homes inundated. Furthermore, there were 14 disruptions to 500 kV power lines, causing outages that affected more than six million customers, including around 430 industrial parks.

The agricultural sector experienced significant damage as well, with 284,472 hectares of rice fields, 61,114 hectares of other crops, and 39,188 hectares of fruit trees adversely affected. Forestry faced losses of 189,982 hectares of forest, while aquaculture was hit hard, losing 35,029 hectares of aquafarms and 11,832 fish cages. The livestock sector reported the death of 44,174 large animals and 5.6 million poultry.

Minister Hoan highlighted the difficulties encountered during the response to Typhoon Yagi, particularly the inadequacy of emergency plans for large-scale natural disasters. He noted that vague and unrelatable warnings led to a lack of preparedness among the public.

Moreover, he pointed out that the failure to implement government guidelines fully for typhoon readiness resulted in unnecessary casualties and damage. Poor upkeep of trees and infrastructures, along with insufficient emergency resources, worsened the situation.

Regarding infrastructure, the resilience of civilian and disaster prevention structures was found lacking against the storm’s fury. Many transport systems, especially in hilly and remote regions, experienced frequent landslides and severe flooding.

Minister Hoan stressed the necessity of accurate and prompt weather forecasts and alerts as vital for managing the impacts of natural disasters. He criticized existing forecasting methods for not effectively predicting extreme rainfall and flooding events, highlighting an urgent need for improvements.

As of September 27th, Quang Ninh was the hardest-hit province, incurring damages of around 24.876 trillion VND, followed by Hai Phong at 12.249 trillion VND, with other provinces recording significant economic impacts as well.

The ongoing assessment and response efforts to the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi emphasize the critical need for improved disaster preparedness and robust infrastructure, especially considering the growing challenges posed by changing weather patterns.