SUPER TYPHOON YAGI
Myanmar junta makes rare request for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods September 14, 2024
By Agence France-Presse
By Agence France-Presse
Flood-affected residents use bamboo rafts as they move to higher ground in Taungoo, Myanmar's Bago region, on Sept. 14, 2024, following heavy rains in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi.
Taungoo, Myanmar —
Myanmar's junta chief made a rare request Saturday for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have already endured three years of war.
Floods and landslides have killed almost 300 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.
In Myanmar, more than 235,000 people have been forced from their homes by floods, the junta said Friday, piling further misery on the country, where war has raged since the military seized power in 2021.
In Taungoo — around an hour south of the capital, Naypyidaw — residents paddled makeshift rafts on floodwaters that reached the roofs of some buildings.
Around 300 people were sheltering at a monastery on high ground in a nearby village.
"We are surrounded by water, and we don't have enough food for everyone," one man said. "We need food, water and medicine as priority."
Outside another temple, Buddhist nuns in pink and orange robes waded through knee-deep water.
"I lost my rice, chickens and ducks," said farmer Naing Tun, who had brought his three cows to higher ground near Taungoo after floodwaters inundated his village.
"I don't care about the other belongings. Nothing else is more important than the lives of people and animals," he told AFP.
Flee by any means
The rains in the wake of Typhoon Yagi sent people across Southeast Asia fleeing by any means necessary, including by elephant in Myanmar and Jet Ski in Thailand.
"Officials from the government need to contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims," junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Friday, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
"It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible," he was quoted as saying.
Myanmar's military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.
Last year it suspended travel authorizations for aid groups trying to reach around 1 million victims of powerful Cyclone Mocha, whixh hit the west of the country. At the time the United Nations slammed that decision as "unfathomable."
AFP has contacted a spokesperson for the U.N. in Myanmar for comment.
After Cyclone Nargis killed at least 138,000 people in Myanmar in 2008, the then-junta was accused of blocking emergency aid and initially refusing to grant access to humanitarian workers and supplies.
'Terrible experience'
The junta gave a death toll on Friday of 33, while earlier in the day the country's fire department said rescuers had recovered 36 bodies.
A military spokesperson said it had lost contact with some areas of the country and was investigating reports that dozens had been buried in landslides in a gold-mining area in central Mandalay region.
Local media reported that six people had been killed in a landslide Friday in Tachileik in eastern Shan state.
Military trucks carried small rescue boats to flood-hit areas around the military-built capital, Naypyidaw, on Saturday, AFP reporters said.
"Yesterday we had only one meal," farmer Naing Tun said near Taungoo. “It is terrible to experience flooding because we cannot live our lives well when it happens. It can be OK for people who have money. But for the people who have to work day-to-day for their meals, it is not OK at all."
More than 2.7 million people were already displaced in Myanmar by conflict triggered by the junta's 2021 coup.
Vietnamese authorities said Saturday that 262 people were dead and 83 missing.
Images from Laos’ capital, Vientiane, meanwhile, showed houses and buildings inundated by the Mekong River.
Taungoo, Myanmar —
Myanmar's junta chief made a rare request Saturday for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have already endured three years of war.
Floods and landslides have killed almost 300 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.
In Myanmar, more than 235,000 people have been forced from their homes by floods, the junta said Friday, piling further misery on the country, where war has raged since the military seized power in 2021.
In Taungoo — around an hour south of the capital, Naypyidaw — residents paddled makeshift rafts on floodwaters that reached the roofs of some buildings.
Around 300 people were sheltering at a monastery on high ground in a nearby village.
"We are surrounded by water, and we don't have enough food for everyone," one man said. "We need food, water and medicine as priority."
Outside another temple, Buddhist nuns in pink and orange robes waded through knee-deep water.
"I lost my rice, chickens and ducks," said farmer Naing Tun, who had brought his three cows to higher ground near Taungoo after floodwaters inundated his village.
"I don't care about the other belongings. Nothing else is more important than the lives of people and animals," he told AFP.
Flee by any means
The rains in the wake of Typhoon Yagi sent people across Southeast Asia fleeing by any means necessary, including by elephant in Myanmar and Jet Ski in Thailand.
"Officials from the government need to contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims," junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Friday, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
"It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible," he was quoted as saying.
Myanmar's military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.
Last year it suspended travel authorizations for aid groups trying to reach around 1 million victims of powerful Cyclone Mocha, whixh hit the west of the country. At the time the United Nations slammed that decision as "unfathomable."
AFP has contacted a spokesperson for the U.N. in Myanmar for comment.
After Cyclone Nargis killed at least 138,000 people in Myanmar in 2008, the then-junta was accused of blocking emergency aid and initially refusing to grant access to humanitarian workers and supplies.
'Terrible experience'
The junta gave a death toll on Friday of 33, while earlier in the day the country's fire department said rescuers had recovered 36 bodies.
A military spokesperson said it had lost contact with some areas of the country and was investigating reports that dozens had been buried in landslides in a gold-mining area in central Mandalay region.
Local media reported that six people had been killed in a landslide Friday in Tachileik in eastern Shan state.
Military trucks carried small rescue boats to flood-hit areas around the military-built capital, Naypyidaw, on Saturday, AFP reporters said.
"Yesterday we had only one meal," farmer Naing Tun said near Taungoo. “It is terrible to experience flooding because we cannot live our lives well when it happens. It can be OK for people who have money. But for the people who have to work day-to-day for their meals, it is not OK at all."
More than 2.7 million people were already displaced in Myanmar by conflict triggered by the junta's 2021 coup.
Vietnamese authorities said Saturday that 262 people were dead and 83 missing.
Images from Laos’ capital, Vientiane, meanwhile, showed houses and buildings inundated by the Mekong River.
Vietnam typhoon death toll rises to 233 as more bodies found in areas hit by landslides and floods
By AP
Published : Sept. 14, 2024 -
Published : Sept. 14, 2024 -
People wade in a flooded street in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, in Hanoi, Vietnam on Thursday. (AP-Yonhap)
HANOI, Vietnam — The death toll in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.
Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital of Hanoi were beginning to recede, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north, experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief is in sight.
Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, setting off heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam's mountainous north. Across the country, 103 people are still missing and more than 800 have been injured.
In a village on the outskirts of Hanoi, Nguyen Thi Loan returned to the home that she'd hastily fled on Monday as the floodwaters rose. Much of A Lac village was still under water, and as she surveyed the damage, she wondered how she and others would manage.
“The flood has made our lives so difficult,” she said. “Our rice crop has been destroyed and at home the electrical appliances like the washing machine, TV and fridge are under water.”
Most fatalities have come in the province of Lao Cai, where a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu on Tuesday. Eight villagers turned up safe on Friday morning, telling others that they had left before the deluge, state-run VNExpress newspaper said. However, 48 others from Lang Nu have been found dead, and another 39 remain missing.
Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring in heavy equipment to aid in the rescue effort.
Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.
“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.
Coffins were stacked near the disaster site in preparation for the worst, and villager Tran Thi Ngan mourned at a makeshift altar for family members she had lost.
“It's a disaster,” she told VTV news. “That's the fate we have to accept.”
In Cao Bang, another northern province bordering China, 21 bodies had been recovered by Friday, four days after a landslide pushed a bus, a car and several motorcycles into a small river, swollen with floodwaters. Ten more people remain missing.
Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.
The effects of the typhoon, the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, were also being felt across the region, with flooding and landslides in northern Thailand, Laos and northeastern Myanmar.
In Thailand, 10 deaths have been reported due to flooding or landslides, and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra flew to the north on Friday to visit the border town of Mae Sai. Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation warned of a continuing risk of flash floods in multiple areas through next Wednesday, as new rain was expected to increase the Mekong River's levels further.
In Myanmar, the army said Friday that at least 33 people died across the country since Wednesday. It said 187 relief camps have been established for nearly 240,000 flood victims from 34 townships.
There are fears the death toll may rise sharply as local news outlets reported dozens missing in floods and landslides in the central regions of Mandalay and Bago, as well as eastern Shan State and the country's capital, Naypyitaw.
International aid has been flowing into Vietnam in the aftermath of Yagi, with Australia already delivering humanitarian supplies as part of $2 million in assistance.
South Korea has also pledged $2 million in aid, and the US Embassy said Friday it would provide $1 million in support through the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.
“With more heavy rain forecast in the coming days, USAID’s disaster experts continue to monitor humanitarian needs in close coordination with local emergency authorities and partners on the ground,” the embassy said in a statement. “USAID humanitarian experts on the ground are participating in ongoing assessments to ensure US assistance rapidly reaches populations in need.”
The typhoon and ensuing heavy rains have damaged factories in northern provinces like Haiphong, home to electric car company VinFast, Apple parts suppliers and other electronic manufacturers, which could affect international supply chains, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a research note.
The center said 95 percent of businesses in Haiphong were to resume some activity on Sept. 10 but that "repair efforts will likely lower output for the next weeks and months.” (AP)
HANOI, Vietnam — The death toll in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.
Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital of Hanoi were beginning to recede, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north, experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief is in sight.
Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, setting off heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam's mountainous north. Across the country, 103 people are still missing and more than 800 have been injured.
In a village on the outskirts of Hanoi, Nguyen Thi Loan returned to the home that she'd hastily fled on Monday as the floodwaters rose. Much of A Lac village was still under water, and as she surveyed the damage, she wondered how she and others would manage.
“The flood has made our lives so difficult,” she said. “Our rice crop has been destroyed and at home the electrical appliances like the washing machine, TV and fridge are under water.”
Most fatalities have come in the province of Lao Cai, where a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu on Tuesday. Eight villagers turned up safe on Friday morning, telling others that they had left before the deluge, state-run VNExpress newspaper said. However, 48 others from Lang Nu have been found dead, and another 39 remain missing.
Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring in heavy equipment to aid in the rescue effort.
Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.
“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.
Coffins were stacked near the disaster site in preparation for the worst, and villager Tran Thi Ngan mourned at a makeshift altar for family members she had lost.
“It's a disaster,” she told VTV news. “That's the fate we have to accept.”
In Cao Bang, another northern province bordering China, 21 bodies had been recovered by Friday, four days after a landslide pushed a bus, a car and several motorcycles into a small river, swollen with floodwaters. Ten more people remain missing.
Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.
The effects of the typhoon, the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, were also being felt across the region, with flooding and landslides in northern Thailand, Laos and northeastern Myanmar.
In Thailand, 10 deaths have been reported due to flooding or landslides, and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra flew to the north on Friday to visit the border town of Mae Sai. Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation warned of a continuing risk of flash floods in multiple areas through next Wednesday, as new rain was expected to increase the Mekong River's levels further.
In Myanmar, the army said Friday that at least 33 people died across the country since Wednesday. It said 187 relief camps have been established for nearly 240,000 flood victims from 34 townships.
There are fears the death toll may rise sharply as local news outlets reported dozens missing in floods and landslides in the central regions of Mandalay and Bago, as well as eastern Shan State and the country's capital, Naypyitaw.
International aid has been flowing into Vietnam in the aftermath of Yagi, with Australia already delivering humanitarian supplies as part of $2 million in assistance.
South Korea has also pledged $2 million in aid, and the US Embassy said Friday it would provide $1 million in support through the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.
“With more heavy rain forecast in the coming days, USAID’s disaster experts continue to monitor humanitarian needs in close coordination with local emergency authorities and partners on the ground,” the embassy said in a statement. “USAID humanitarian experts on the ground are participating in ongoing assessments to ensure US assistance rapidly reaches populations in need.”
The typhoon and ensuing heavy rains have damaged factories in northern provinces like Haiphong, home to electric car company VinFast, Apple parts suppliers and other electronic manufacturers, which could affect international supply chains, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a research note.
The center said 95 percent of businesses in Haiphong were to resume some activity on Sept. 10 but that "repair efforts will likely lower output for the next weeks and months.” (AP)
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