By Khanh Vu and Ethan Wang
Hanoi/Beijing: Vietnam has shut down airports, closed schools and begun mass evacuations as it prepares for the most powerful storm so far this year.
Typhoon Kajiki, with gusts of up to 166km/h at sea, was about 110 kilometres off the northern part of Vietnam’s central coast at 1pm and was due to make landfall on Monday afternoon, the country’s weather agency said.
A satellite image shows Kajiki passing China’s southern coastline. Credit: JMA
“This is an extremely dangerous fast-moving storm,” the government said, warning that Kajiki, which can mean spearfish or swordfish in Japanese, would bring heavy rains, flooding and landslides.
It was likely to strengthen, with wind speeds as high as 180km/h predicted, China’s weather forecaster said.
In Vietnam, more than 586,000 people would be moved from the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Hue and Danang, which lie in the storm’s projected path, authorities said on Sunday.
On Monday, they said about 30,000 people had been evacuated from coastal areas. More than 16,500 soldiers and 107,000 paramilitary personnel had been mobilised to help with the evacuation and to stand by for search and rescue.
People in the affected areas were told to stay inside after 11pm Hanoi time on Sunday, and seven coastal provinces in Vietnam banned boats from leaving shore, Tien Phong newspaper reported.
Two airports in Thanh Hoa and Quang Binh provinces have been closed, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam. Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet cancelled dozens of flights to and from the area on Sunday and Monday.
The Vietnamese government likened the strength of Kajiki to that of Yagi, which battered the country less than a year ago, killing about 300 people and causing $5.1 billion of property damage.
With a long coastline facing the South China Sea, Vietnam is prone to storms that are often deadly and trigger dangerous flooding and mudslides.
Worst-case scenarios
Kajiki skirted the southern coast of China’s Hainan Island on Sunday as it moved towards Vietnam, forcing Sanya City on the island to close businesses and public transport.
China’s southernmost province downgraded its typhoon and emergency response alerts on Monday morning but warned of heavy rain and isolated storms in cities in the southern part of Hainan. The Hainan provincial meteorological authority said it expected weather conditions to improve by Monday night.
Local media reported that many residents in Sanya, a popular holiday resort, had taken shelter from the storm in underground garages on Sunday evening. Some large trees were brought down, leaving roads strewn with broken branches by Monday morning.
Since July, record rainfall has lashed China’s north and south in what meteorologists have described as extreme weather linked to climate change.
Natural disasters, including flooding and drought, caused $11.3 billion in direct economic losses in China last month, affecting millions of people and leaving 295 dead or missing, data from the Ministry of Emergency Management showed.
Reuters, AP