(Bloomberg) -- Rivers in north Vietnam are swelling to historic levels amid a rising death toll as heavy rains continue days after Super Typhoon Yagi first battered the country.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 157 deaths had been reported with 139 people missing across the nation’s northern region, according to state television VTV. More than 101,000 houses have been damaged and over 40,000 homes submerged in floodwaters, according to the agriculture ministry.
Vietnam’s worst storm in decades is another sign that global warming is making tropical cyclones — also called hurricanes or typhoons — more intense. Warmer water and moister air, two results of global warming, provide additional fuel to tropical cyclones and other storms. In Vietnam, incessant downpours since the weekend have added to the destruction wrought by Yagi, which made landfall Saturday before weakening to a tropical depression.
The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has said heavy rains in north Vietnam are expected to continue at least through Thursday. The government is warning of a continuing risk of floods and landslides.
Global electronics manufacturers such as Apple Inc. suppliers and Samsung Electronics Co. located in flood-hit provinces appear to have been spared major damage.
Factories in the port city of Haiphong have mostly resumed regular operations despite flooding to some warehouses and roads, according to Le Trung Kien, head of Haiphong’s Economic Zone Authority. “We are using many pumping machines to pump out water to keep factories and facilities dry,” Kien said by phone from Haiphong.
The government has not provided overall damage estimates. Initial loss calculations from Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Thai Binh, Ha Giang provinces total about $95 million. The provincial government of Quang Ninh has spent 180 billion dong ($7.3 million) to assist with rebuilding homes and facilities.
The swelling Thao River in the northern province of Yen Bai surpassed its highest level on record of 34.4 meters (112.9 feet), according to a post on the government’s website. The record-breaking water level in the Cau River in Bac Giang province left 9,000 people isolated, according to VTC news website. The Red River, which cuts through the nation’s capital of Hanoi, reached its highest level in 16 years. The river is at alert level two and has already caused flooding in some areas of Hanoi, according to local media.
China, at Vietnam’s request, agreed to coordinate water discharges from hydropower dams in the upper Red River to help with flood management, according to a post on Vietnam’s government website.
A flash flood Tuesday in a village of the northern province of Lao Cai bordering China claimed 22 lives and left 73 people unaccounted for, Tin Tuc news website reported.
As of Tuesday, the government said about 149,000 hectares of north Vietnam rice fields had been flooded, and 26,200 hectares of other crops damaged, state radio reported on its website.
--With assistance from Linh Vu Nguyen and Nguyen Xuan Quynh.
(Updates with China hydropower dams in the 9th paragraph.)
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