When a massive landslide crashed into her village in northern Vietnam, Hoang Thi Bay clung desperately to a concrete pillar as the wall of mud and rocks swept houses away all around her.
The landslide triggered by intense rains from Typhoon Yagi engulfed the remote community of Lang Nu in Lao Cai province early on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people and leaving another 65 people still missing.
Bay was one of 63 survivors in the mountain village now reduced to a flat expanse of mud and rocks, strewn with wood, broken motorbikes and cooking pots.
A thundering roar like a low-flying aircraft woke Bay around 6:00 am on Tuesday and she quickly made her life-saving grab for the pillar.
“I looked out of the window and saw a huge amount of land coming towards me,” she told AFP.
“I ran out to our kitchen, and clung tightly to a concrete pole. Our wooden stilt house was destroyed.”
She said her husband had been staying overnight with family on higher ground, and rushed back to try to save her.
“But I was able to escape myself. He and another cousin helped bring out two or three relatives from the rubble and the mud,” she said.
“I lost everything — my home, all my belongings, everything.”
– Search for bodies –
Others lost more than just houses and possessions.
Children from at least four families died in Lang Nu, a village of 37 households in a valley surrounded by verdant mountains around 300 kilometres (180 miles) from Hanoi.
The community are from the Tay ethnic group and the village was close-knit, with many people linked by family bonds.
“For generations living here, I don’t think we experienced this sort of flash floods and landslide ever,” Bay said.
“Four families, including kids — all gone. They were our cousins.”
Rescue workers have already pulled the bodies of several children from the mud.
Hundreds of soldiers and police officers are racing to find dozens of others still buried under the soil, using picks and shovels to dig through the thick mud.
Hopes of finding anyone still alive are almost non-existent.
Those who had died were wrapped in plastic sheets or cloth, brought out on bamboo stretchers and laid on the ground for identification by survivors still in shock.
One woman could be seen crying next to the bodies of her grandchildren.
Typhoon Yagi struck north Vietnam Saturday bringing winds in excess of 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour and a catastrophic deluge of rain.
The downpour has caused rivers to burst their banks, inundating tens of thousands of homes across northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar — and triggering deadly landslides in the mountainous region.
Vietnamese state media said the toll from Yagi — the strongest storm to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years — had risen past 150 across the country.
In Lang Nu, the survivors question whether they will ever return.
“I don’t think we would come back to continue to live there, at the site of the village. It’s dangerous,” Bay said.
