Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm of 2024, has been downgraded to a tropical depression after wreaking havoc in northern Vietnam, China’s Hainan and the Philippines and claiming dozens of lives, according to preliminary reports.

Vietnam’s meteorological agency issued the downgrade on Sunday but cautioned about the ongoing risk of flooding and landslides as the storm, the strongest to hit the country in decades, moved westwards.

On Saturday, Yagi disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, causing extensive flooding, felling thousands of trees and damaging homes.

The government said the storm had led to at least three deaths in Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million, noting the figures were preliminary.

While friends around the world walk for Blue Dragon, northern Vietnam is cleaning up from Typhoon Yagi. Lots of damage done to communities both in the cities and villages. pic.twitter.com/BVG6Fqk4lx

— Blue Dragon (@BlueDragonVN) September 8, 2024

Fourteen people have died in Vietnam so far, according to reports, including four from a landslide in the province of Hoa Binh, about 100km south of Hanoi.

A 53-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a tree fell on him in the northern Hai Duong province, state media reported.

At least one body was recovered from waters near the coastal city of Halong, where a dozen people were missing at sea, with rescue operations expected to start on Sunday when conditions allow.

Yagi has claimed the lives of four people on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the latest update from local authorities.

After #TyphoonYagi, Haikou, China. pic.twitter.com/mvLvTeDSgd

— China in Pictures (@tongbingxue) September 8, 2024

The civil defence office in the Philippines, the first country Yagi hit after forming, raised the death toll there on Sunday to 20 from 16 and said 22 people remained missing.

After it made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, Yagi triggered waves as high as four metres in coastal provinces, leading to extended power and telecommunication outages that have complicated damage assessment, the government said.

The meteorological agency warned of continued “risk of flash floods near small rivers and streams, and landslides on steep slopes in many places in the northern mountainous areas” and the coastal province of Thanh Hoa.

Relative calm returned on Sunday morning to Hanoi, where authorities rushed to clean up streets from toppled trees scattered across the city centre and other neighbourhoods.

“The storm has devastated the city,” 57-year-old Hanoi resident Hoang Ngoc Nhien said.

“Trees fell down on top of people’s houses, cars and people on the street.”

Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport, the busiest in northern Vietnam, reopened on Sunday after closing on Saturday morning.

In Hainan, preliminary estimates suggested significant economic losses and widespread power outages, according to emergency response authorities cited by state-run Hainan Daily.

-Reuters