Over the weekend, typhoon Yagi has created great havoc in Vietnam. In the province of Phu Tho in northern Vietnam, a bridge collapsed due to the typhoon and the car that captures the accident with its camera manages to brake at the last second.
About ten vehicles were on the bridge when it collapsed, among these was a bus with 20 passengers. The bridge collapse, which was caused by a landslide in the flooded river. In several rivers in the northern parts of the country, the water level is dangerously high, the authorities warn.
Hai managed to land on a ledge when the bridge collapsed, but about ten vehicles ended up in the Red River.
– I was so scared when I fell down. It feels like I managed to cheat death. I can’t swim and I thought I was going to die, says Hai.
60s have died as a result of the typhoon
Pham Troung Son who was riding a motorcycle survived by clinging to a floating banana tree.
– Both I and my vehicle fell into the river. I think I was at the bottom or near the bottom of the river. I did my utmost to get to the surface, he says.
Many are still missing after the bridge collapse and a total of around 60 people have died in floods and landslides that followed the typhoon, which is the strongest in Vietnam in many decades. On Sunday, the winds subsided, but the continued rainfall is hitting the already heavily strained infrastructure hard.
The rescue efforts are complicated by the landslide, whose rock and mud blocked access to the accident site.
The typhoon has also caused deaths and extensive damage in the Philippines and in southern China.
Climate change is said to lead to increasingly stronger tropical storms, like Yagi, as warmer seawater fuels the storms and causes faster winds and heavier downpours.