Rivers in northern 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.
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