By AFP
August 26, 2025
Typhoon Kajiki downed trees and tore roofs off thousands of homes in Vietnam
- Copyright AFP Nhac NGUYEN
Tran Thi Minh Ha
The death toll from Typhoon Kajiki rose to three in Vietnam on Tuesday, as rescue workers battled uprooted trees and downed power lines and widespread flooding brought chaos to the streets of the capital Hanoi.
The typhoon hit central Vietnam on Monday with winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), tearing roofs off thousands of homes and knocking out power to more than 1.6 million people.
Authorities on Tuesday said three people had been killed and 13 injured, and warned of possible flash floods and landslides in eight provinces as Kajiki’s torrential rains continue to wreak havoc.
On the streets of Vinh, in central Vietnam, AFP journalists saw soldiers and rescue workers using cutting equipment to clear dozens of trees and roof panels that had blocked the roads.
“A huge steel roof was blown down from the eighth floor of a building, landing right in the middle of the street,” Tran Van Hung, 65, told AFP.
“It was so lucky that no one was hurt. This typhoon was absolutely terrifying.”
Vietnam has long been affected by seasonal typhoons, but human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns.
This can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
“The wind yesterday night was so strong. The sound from trees twisting and the noise of the flying steel panels were all over the place,” Vinh resident Nguyen Thi Hoa, 60, told AFP.
“We are used to heavy rain and floods but I think I have never experienced that strong wind and its gust like this yesterday.”
Flooding has cut off 27 villages in mountainous areas inland, authorities said, while more than 44,000 people were evacuated as the storm approached.
– Chaos in Hanoi –
Further north in Hanoi, the heavy rains left many streets under water, bringing traffic chaos on Tuesday morning.
“It was impossible to move around this morning. My front yard is also flooded,” Nguyen Thuy Lan, 44, told AFP.
Another Hanoi resident, Tran Luu Phuc, said he was stuck in one place for more than an hour, unable to escape the logjam of vehicles trapped by the murky brown waters.
“The flooding and the traffic this morning are terrible. It’s a big mess everywhere,” he told AFP.
After hitting Vietnam and weakening to a tropical depression, Kajiki swept westwards over northern Laos, bringing intense rains.
The high-speed Laos-China railway halted all services on Monday and Tuesday, and some roads have been cut, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
In September last year Typhoon Yagi battered northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering floods and landslides that left more than 700 people dead and causing billions of dollars’ worth of economic losses.
burs-pdw/mtp
Vietnam evacuates tens of thousands as Typhoon Kajiki hits
By AFP
August 25, 2025
Rain falls above the buildings and a street in Vinh city on August 25, 2025, before Typhoon Kajiki makes landfall in Vietnam - Copyright AFP -
Tran Thi Minh Ha
Vietnam evacuated tens of thousands of residents from coastal areas on Monday as Typhoon Kajiki made landfall, lashing the country’s central belt with gales of more than 130 kilometres per hour.
The typhoon — the fifth to affect Vietnam this year — roiled the Gulf of Tonkin with waves of up to 9.5 metres (31 feet) before hitting shore around 3:00 pm (0800 GMT).
Nearly 30,000 people were evacuated from the region as 16,000 military personnel were mobilised and all fishing boats in the typhoon’s path were called back to harbour.
Two domestic airports were shut and 35 flights cancelled before it landed between Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces.
Waterfront Vinh city was deluged overnight, its streets largely deserted with most shops and restaurants closed as residents and business owners sandbagged their property entrances.
“I have never heard of a typhoon of this big scale coming to our city,” said 66-year-old Le Manh Tung at a Vinh indoor sports stadium, where evacuated families dined on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.
“I am a bit scared, but then we have to accept it because it’s nature — we cannot do anything,” he told AFP, among only a few dozen people camped out at the evacuation site on Monday morning.
The typhoon made landfall packing windspeeds between 118 and 133 kilometres per hour (73 and 82 miles per hour), Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.
“Rain will continue today and tomorrow, and with that huge rainfall risks for floodings and flash floods on rivers are very high,” director Mai Van Khiem said.
– ‘Never this big’ –
Scientists say human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns that can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
“Normally we get storms and flooding, but never this big,” said 52-year-old evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan.
The typhoon’s power is due to dramatically dissipate after it makes landfall.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said conditions suggested “an approaching weakening trend as the system approaches the continental shelf of the Gulf of Tonkin where there is less ocean heat content”.
China’s tropical resort island of Hainan evacuated around 20,000 residents on Sunday as the typhoon passed its south.
The island’s main city, Sanya, closed scenic areas and halted business operations.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
Economic losses have been estimated at more than $21 million.
Vietnam suffered $3.3 billion in economic losses last September as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which swept across the country’s north and caused hundreds of fatalities.
Tran Thi Minh Ha
The death toll from Typhoon Kajiki rose to three in Vietnam on Tuesday, as rescue workers battled uprooted trees and downed power lines and widespread flooding brought chaos to the streets of the capital Hanoi.
The typhoon hit central Vietnam on Monday with winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), tearing roofs off thousands of homes and knocking out power to more than 1.6 million people.
Authorities on Tuesday said three people had been killed and 13 injured, and warned of possible flash floods and landslides in eight provinces as Kajiki’s torrential rains continue to wreak havoc.
On the streets of Vinh, in central Vietnam, AFP journalists saw soldiers and rescue workers using cutting equipment to clear dozens of trees and roof panels that had blocked the roads.
“A huge steel roof was blown down from the eighth floor of a building, landing right in the middle of the street,” Tran Van Hung, 65, told AFP.
“It was so lucky that no one was hurt. This typhoon was absolutely terrifying.”
Vietnam has long been affected by seasonal typhoons, but human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns.
This can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
“The wind yesterday night was so strong. The sound from trees twisting and the noise of the flying steel panels were all over the place,” Vinh resident Nguyen Thi Hoa, 60, told AFP.
“We are used to heavy rain and floods but I think I have never experienced that strong wind and its gust like this yesterday.”
Flooding has cut off 27 villages in mountainous areas inland, authorities said, while more than 44,000 people were evacuated as the storm approached.
– Chaos in Hanoi –
Further north in Hanoi, the heavy rains left many streets under water, bringing traffic chaos on Tuesday morning.
“It was impossible to move around this morning. My front yard is also flooded,” Nguyen Thuy Lan, 44, told AFP.
Another Hanoi resident, Tran Luu Phuc, said he was stuck in one place for more than an hour, unable to escape the logjam of vehicles trapped by the murky brown waters.
“The flooding and the traffic this morning are terrible. It’s a big mess everywhere,” he told AFP.
After hitting Vietnam and weakening to a tropical depression, Kajiki swept westwards over northern Laos, bringing intense rains.
The high-speed Laos-China railway halted all services on Monday and Tuesday, and some roads have been cut, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
In September last year Typhoon Yagi battered northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering floods and landslides that left more than 700 people dead and causing billions of dollars’ worth of economic losses.
burs-pdw/mtp
Vietnam evacuates tens of thousands as Typhoon Kajiki hits
By AFP
August 25, 2025
Rain falls above the buildings and a street in Vinh city on August 25, 2025, before Typhoon Kajiki makes landfall in Vietnam - Copyright AFP -
Tran Thi Minh Ha
Vietnam evacuated tens of thousands of residents from coastal areas on Monday as Typhoon Kajiki made landfall, lashing the country’s central belt with gales of more than 130 kilometres per hour.
The typhoon — the fifth to affect Vietnam this year — roiled the Gulf of Tonkin with waves of up to 9.5 metres (31 feet) before hitting shore around 3:00 pm (0800 GMT).
Nearly 30,000 people were evacuated from the region as 16,000 military personnel were mobilised and all fishing boats in the typhoon’s path were called back to harbour.
Two domestic airports were shut and 35 flights cancelled before it landed between Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces.
Waterfront Vinh city was deluged overnight, its streets largely deserted with most shops and restaurants closed as residents and business owners sandbagged their property entrances.
“I have never heard of a typhoon of this big scale coming to our city,” said 66-year-old Le Manh Tung at a Vinh indoor sports stadium, where evacuated families dined on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.
“I am a bit scared, but then we have to accept it because it’s nature — we cannot do anything,” he told AFP, among only a few dozen people camped out at the evacuation site on Monday morning.
The typhoon made landfall packing windspeeds between 118 and 133 kilometres per hour (73 and 82 miles per hour), Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.
“Rain will continue today and tomorrow, and with that huge rainfall risks for floodings and flash floods on rivers are very high,” director Mai Van Khiem said.
– ‘Never this big’ –
Scientists say human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns that can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
“Normally we get storms and flooding, but never this big,” said 52-year-old evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan.
The typhoon’s power is due to dramatically dissipate after it makes landfall.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said conditions suggested “an approaching weakening trend as the system approaches the continental shelf of the Gulf of Tonkin where there is less ocean heat content”.
China’s tropical resort island of Hainan evacuated around 20,000 residents on Sunday as the typhoon passed its south.
The island’s main city, Sanya, closed scenic areas and halted business operations.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
Economic losses have been estimated at more than $21 million.
Vietnam suffered $3.3 billion in economic losses last September as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which swept across the country’s north and caused hundreds of fatalities.
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