Typhoon Yagi leaves at least 74 dead in Myanmar after flooding and landslides

By Isaac Yee, CNN

(CNN) — At least 74 people have died and scores more are still missing in Myanmar following heavy flooding and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi, state media reported on Sunday.

The flooding across the civil war-torn country has impacted more than 450 villages and wards, according to Myanmar News Agency (MNA).

It added that search and rescue operations were underway to locate 89 people still missing. Around 65,000 homes have also been destroyed, according to MNA.

Images from news agency AFP showed submerged homes and vehicles in the city of Taungoo, an hour south of the capital Naypyidaw. Other images show residents evacuating on boats and bamboo rafts, their belongings wrapped in plastic bags.

Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, left a trail of destruction across Southeast Asia and southern China after sweeping the region with heavy rains and strong winds.

In Vietnam, the death toll has risen to at least 226 as a result of the storm and the landslides and flash floods it triggered, the government’s disaster agency said Thursday, according to Reuters.

And in Thailand, nine people died last week from poor weather brought by the typhoon, Reuters reported, citing the Thai government – out of a total 33 deaths nationwide since August from rain-related incidents including landslides.

Storms are being made more intense and deadlier by the warming ocean, scientists have long warned. While developed nations bear a greater historical responsibility for the human-induced climate crisis, developing nations and small-island states are suffering the worst impacts.

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