Hanoi residents shocked by typhoon Yagi devastation

At 5:30 p.m. on Saturday the taxi driver had returned to his house on Quan Su Street in Hoan Kiem District after dropping off his last customer. He parked his car near the door and close to the two trees, believing that with their size and strong roots, they would withstand the mighty storm.

Just 30 minutes later there was a loud cracking sound as a branch from the flamboyant tree came crashing down, shattering the windshield of his car. His family urged him to move the car elsewhere, but seeing the strong winds outside, he hesitated. At that very moment a second crash echoed through the street. The 40-year-old African mahogany, with a trunk so large that it would take two people to wrap their arms around it, was uprooted and came crashing on the car, crushing it completely.

Le Tu, 55, stood helplessly next to his family car, which had been crushed by a fallen tree. Photo taken on Sept. 8. 2024, by Thanh Nga

Dozens of other trees along Quan Su Street were also uprooted, while others broke in half and some had branches snapping off. Tu says: "It looked like a bomb had hit the place. I’ve never seen anything like this before." At midday Sunday the street was still littered with fallen trees, many of them blocking the way. People had to walk on the pavements to avoid them.

Typhoon Yagi, Asia's most powerful storm this year, made landfall last Saturday on Vietnam’s north-eastern coast, and was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sept 8 by the meteorological agency.

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

Around a kilometer away, on Hang Trong Street, 64-year-old Nguyen Nghia and her family are repairing a water pipe that was damaged when a 100-year-old tamarind tree in front of their house was uprooted. She says: "The tree is so large it would take three people to wrap their arms around it, and now it’s gone. It feels like a war zone."

The tamarind tree fell at around noon Saturday. Amid the howling of the wind, they heard a loud crash and some people in the neighborhood even felt the ground shake. People rushing outside saw the tree lying across the road. But with the storm still raging they had no choice but to retreat indoors.

A resident of Hang Trong Street repaired a water pipe after a tamarind tree in front of their house was uprooted. Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2024, by Quynh Nguyen

Tran Duc Anh, 42, who lives 10 km from Hanoi’s city center, was greeted by a scene "straight out of a movie" when he opened his front door at 6 a.m. on Sunday: There were trees lying on both sides of the street.

The massive old trees had once been popular spots for locals to sit under and cool off or exercise. "I have lived in Hanoi for over 40 years and never seen anything like it," Anh says. "It’s heartbreaking to see so many familiar trees lying on the street."

At noon Sunday streets in districts such as Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, Long Bien, Ba Dinh, Dong Da, Cau Giay, Nam Tu Liem, and Bac Tu Liem were still blocked by fallen trees. The city government reported that some 17,000 trees had been uprooted by the storm.

Urban Hanoi has around 1.8 million trees like African mahogany, tropical almond, flamboyant, golden shower, giant crape-myrtle, Burma padauk, and Indian-almond. Its 12 central districts have around 8,000 old trees, many at least 50 years old and with trunks over 50 cm across.

For many Hanoians, the old trees are part of their memories. Streets like Hoang Dieu and Phan Dinh Phung are steeped in history, and the trees are a living testament to those times, cultural researcher and former dean of the faculty of culture and development at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, Pham Ngoc Trung says.

"The fact that so many have fallen due to the storm has left people shocked and heartbroken."

A tree was uprooted on Trich Sai Street. Photo by taken on Sept. 8, 2024, by Tran Duy Tiep

Tran Duy Tiep, a freelance photographer from Soc Son District, 30 kilometers from the city center, took to social media to call for volunteers to help authorities clear the streets in the early hours of Sunday.

"I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to do something meaningful," he says. He left his house at 1:45 a.m. and arrived at Thuy Khue Street at 2:30 a.m.

"I was trembling when I saw the devastation. If you were driving and lost focus for just a second, you could crash into a fallen tree."

After gathering nearly 10 volunteers, he followed local officials and traffic police officers to clear some areas along Nguyen Dinh Thi and Trich Sai streets in Tay Ho District. Everywhere they went, they encountered fallen trees and branches, billboards and lamp posts. Some trees were so large that it took nearly 10 people and 30 minutes to move them off the street.

Early on Sunday morning Duc Anh also took to social media to rally residents to join in the clean-up efforts, knowing that with the limited capacity of the authorities and sanitation workers, it would otherwise take a long time to clear the streets.

One day after the storm Nghia and some neighbors were sawing off branches to clear the road. She notes that while broken pipes can be repaired, the fallen trees may never have the opportunity to grow to such an age again.

"Everyone on my street is heartbroken."