The Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Search and Rescue of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has urged local vulnerable localities to evacuate locals to safe places as Typhoon Tembin is heading to Vietnam’s mainland.

Fishing boats dock in a safe port in Rach Gia city of Kien Giang

The tropical storm, the 16th hitting the East Sea so far this year, is likely to force over 137,000 people in Can Tho to evacuate and affect its infrastructure and crops.

The committee directed local authorities to deploy people and vehicles to help locals, while designing plans to cope with the storm’s effects.

Typhoon Tembin, which landed in the Philippines on December 23, killing 200 people and leaving dozens of others missing, is forecast to impacts a number of Mekong Delta localities.

At 10am of December 24, the storm’s centre was about 230km east of Truong Sa Lon island of the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago with wind speed of 115-135km per hour.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF), in the next 24 hours, the storm is moving towards west at 25 km per hour. At 10am of December 25, the storm’s centre is about 220km east of Con Dao island offshore Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. The strongest wind speeds may reach 115 - 135 km per hour.

Leaders of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on December 24 inspected storm control work at local coastal localities in Vung Tau city, Long Dien, Dat Do and Xuyen Moc districts.

According to the city people’s committee, 49 ships with 362 crewmembers on board are operating at sea. All are updated with the storm’s developments and asked to seek shelter.

The city built two evacuation plans for 16,500 households with 36,752 people.

Meanwhile, Ca Mau province banned all fishing vessels to leave the shore as from 16:00 of December 23. Authorities have contacted 862 fishing boats operating at sea, including 372 offshore fishing vessels, to notice them to find safe shelters. So far, 743 vessels have docked in safe ports.

The provincial People’s Committee also asked agencies, departments and localities to call on locals to reinforce their houses and production facilities to minimise losses.

On December 24, the People’s Committee of Dong Thap province held an urgent meeting with 12 localities to launch plans to cope with the storm. Chairman of the committee Nguyen Van Duong asked the localities to update locals on developments of the storm, while reinforcing dykes and irrigation works, and promptly finishing crop harvesting.

Khuong Le Binh, Director of the Hydro-meteorological Centre of Dong Thap, said that in several days, the typhoon is predicted to land in the mainland, directly affecting localities from Ba Ria-Vung Tau to Ca Mau. 

Currently, the storm is 900km off Dong Thap province with wind speed of 25km per hour. It is forecast to hit Dong Thao on early December 26 with heavy rain and strong wind, he added.

At the same time, the People’s Committee of Bac Lieu province started evacuating locals in risky places from December 24. Bac Lieu plans to move over 85,000 households with 365,700 people in 31,000 vulnerable locations. 

More than 12,000 people and 24,000 vehicles have been mobilised. The province has also applied measures to protect 33,000 hectares of rice-shrimp farms, 46,000 hectares of rice and 76,000 hectares of aquaculture farms. 

Bac Lieu has 1,232 fishing vessels, of which 177 are operating at sea and heading to the port.

In southern Tay Ninh province, locals residing around Dau Tieng Lake, Sai Gon and Vam Co Rivers are asked to move to safer places and reinforce their houses. 

Le Van Dung, Director of Dau Tieng-Phuoc Hoa irrigation company, said that on December 24, the company deployed personnel to keep a close watch to the movement of Tembin and implement necessary responding measures. 

Heavy rain and strong wind is forecast in Tay Ninh from December 25-26.

Earlier on December 23, the central province of Binh Thuan banned fishing vessels to go to sea from 16:00. As of December 23, 252 vessels with 1,875 people aboard were operating at sea. They were informed of the storm and guidelines to seek safe shelters.-VNA