By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
HONG KONG/BEIJING/MANILA/HANOI (Worthy News) – Asia’s most powerful storm this year hit northern Vietnam on Saturday after tearing through China’s southern island of Hainan, where it killed two people, injured dozens, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee, officials said.
Super Typhoon Yagi, the world’s second-strongest tropical cyclone in 2024, landed at Vietnam’s coastal provinces of Quang Ninh and Haiphong with wind speeds reaching up to 149 kilometers per hour (92 miles per hour), state media reported.
Before landing, strong winds felled a tree, killing a woman in the capital, Hanoi, local media said Saturday.
Quang Ninh is home to the UNESCO World Heritage site Ha Long Bay, known for its many towering limestone islands.
Local media reported that hundreds of cruises were canceled before the typhoon landed. Haiphong is an industrial hub home to large factories, including electric vehicle maker VinFast and Apple supplier Pegatron.
The typhoon has also triggered power outages in large parts of Quang Ninh and Thai Binh provinces, media reported.
POWERFUL TYPHOON
Vietnamese meteorological authorities described the typhoon as “one of the most powerful typhoons in the region over the past decade. ” It made its way to the Southeast Asian country after devastating the Chinese province of Hainan.
Yagi also devastated areas elsewhere, including in the Philippines, where it reportedly killed at least 16 people.
Soon after, Yagi slammed into Wenchang city in the north-east of Hainan island with winds of 223 kilometers per hour (138 miles per hour) on Friday, according to state media.she
Yagi is the strongest typhoon to hit Hainan since Rammasun in 2014, which killed 46 people. China’s weather agency called it the most powerful typhoon that made landfall in autumn.
Some 400,000 people in Hainan island were evacuated to safe ground ahead of Yagi’s arrival. Trains, boats, and flights were suspended while schools were shut.
The Indo-Pacific Tropical Cyclone Warning Center warned in an advisory earlier this week that Yagi, which has doubled in strength after wreaking havoc in the northern Philippines early this week, is an “extremely dangerous and powerful” super typhoon that could make a “potentially catastrophic” landfall.
CATEGORY 5
According to experts, a super typhoon is equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
Local media reported that shortly after it made landfall, Hainan experienced widespread power outages, affecting about 830,000 households.
Emergency teams of about 7,000 people said power was restored to 260,000 homes by late Friday.
Authorities have ordered all tourist attractions to close since Wednesday, warning of “massive and destructive winds.”
It was a significant setback for the lucrative tourism industry. With its white sand beaches, luxury hotels, and duty-free shops, Hainan has been dubbed “China’s Hawaii.”
The world’s longest sea crossing, the main bridge linking Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai in Guangdong, was also closed.
MAKING LANDFALL
The storm made landfall for a second time in Guangdong late Friday evening. Its winds exceeded 200 kilometers per hour (320 miles per hour) amid massive rainfall.
Hainan is no stranger to typhoons. However, experts said that just nine of the 106 typhoons that had landed in Hainan since 1949 were classified as super typhoons.
With Vietnam striking on Saturday, much of Asia anxiously watched to see when the region would move into less turbulent times.
In a show of defiance, financial hub Hong Kong will end its decades-long practice of shutting markets during severe storms on September 23.
Yet Hong Kong scrapped trading of its $4.9 trillion stock market on Friday after the weather bureau prolonged a storm warning, which was likely the final time a typhoon forced a trading halt.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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