HANOI: Millions of people across Southeast Asia were struggling with flooded homes, power outages and destroyed infrastructure on Thursday after Typhoon Yagi tore through the region, with the death toll rising above 250.
In Vietnam, the worst-hit country, the death toll has risen to 226, with nine confirmed deaths in northern Thailand, where one district is experiencing its worst flooding in 80 years.
Myanmar's national fire service has confirmed the country's first Yagi-related deaths after 17 bodies were recovered from flooded villages in the Mandalay region, while more than 50,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
Yagi unleashed a colossal deluge of rain that inundated a swath of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering deadly landslides and widespread river flooding.
The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said the typhoon had damaged more than 140,000 homes in 26 provinces in Vietnam.
Flood waters in Vietnam are receding and flowing into the sea via the Red River, the area's main waterway.
Authorities in several districts in the Red River Delta have ordered more than 50,000 people to evacuate their homes as a precaution as runoff water passes through.
In the deadliest incident, a landslide in Lao Cai province destroyed an entire village of 37 houses, killing at least 42 people and leaving 53 still missing.
On Thursday, rescuers pulled victims from the mud and carried them on stretchers to makeshift shelters where neighbors and relatives carefully washed the bodies to prepare them for burial.
Survivors sifted through mud and rubble to recover whatever family heirlooms and possessions they could find.
Myanmar's junta government has set up around 50 camps to help people affected by the floods, said Lay Shwe Zin Oo, director of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. AFP.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that train services on the main line between Yangon and Mandalay were suspended because some sections were flooded.
The Mekong River Commission, the international body that oversees the crucial waterway, issued a flood warning for the historic Laotian city of Luang Prabang on Thursday.
The Mekong is expected to reach flood levels in the coming days in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the commission said in a statement.
In Thailand, the death toll has risen to nine, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said, including six killed in landslides in Chiang Mai province.
All flights in and out of Chiang Rai airport, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Chiang Mai, aviation authorities said.
Further north, Mae Sai district on the border with Myanmar is suffering its worst flooding in 80 years, Suttipong Juljarern, a senior Home Ministry official, said in a statement.
