Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has asked central coastal provinces to be well prepared for storm Son Tinh which is regaining strength and is forecast to batter the central coast late on October 27.
At 13.00pm on October 26, Son Tinh, the eighth of its kind in the East Sea, was positioned around 330km south-east of the Hoang Sa archipelago, packing winds of between 80-117kph near its centre.
It is tracking west and north-west at a speed of 20-25kmph and is expected to pound central coastal provinces of Nghe An and Quang Tri in the next 24-48 hours.
When making a landfall, it will dump heavy rains on coastal provinces stretching from Thanh Hoa to Quang Nam and cause rough seas. It will weaken into a tropical low pressure system in 48 hours and dissipate in Laos.
Being aware of the severity of the storm, Deputy PM Hai directed central coastal provinces to call in offshore fishing vessels, reinforce public works, local houses, and fishing farms, examine dams and lakes, and evacuate people from low-lying areas to higher ground.
He asked these localities to put rescue forces on standby to deal with the worst emergency cases.
By 07.00am on October 26, more than 38,000 fishing vessels with nearly 200,000 people on board had been informed of the storm’s track to find the nearby storm shelters.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has dispatched two groups of experts to the designated localities to examine their dyke and dam systems.
The Ministries of Public Security, Health, and Transport have cabled urgent messages to their agencies in localities to be well prepared for the storm.
