Vietnam closed schools, airports, and evacuated thousands of people as it braced for powerful Typhoon Kajiki to make landfall Monday, threatening the country’s northeast with destructive winds and storm surges.
The typhoon downed trees and soaked China’s southern Hainan island on Sunday before moving over the Gulf of Tonkin overnight with sustained wind speeds of 166 kph (103 mph), according to Vietnam’s national weather forecast agency, the equivalent to a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane.
More than 40,000 people had been evacuated in low-lying coastal communities as of Monday morning, according to the state-run VN Express. Residents have been told not to leave their homes between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time, the state Vietnamese News Agency (VNA) reported.
Kajiki is the fifth typhoon to hit Vietnam this year and the most powerful, having sustained its intensity as it churned toward the coast.
Ahead of landfall, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh warned the storm could unleash heavy rainfall, flash floods and landslides especially for the low-lying coastal areas, according to Vietnamese state media.
“This is an extremely dangerous fast-moving storm,” the government said in a statement Sunday night, Reuters news agency reported.
Kajiki is expected to make landfall in the central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An late afternoon into evening local time, as either a weak typhoon or strong tropical storm. Thanh Hoa is about 166 kilometers (103 miles) south of Hanoi.
Government officials had compared the typhoon to Typhoon Yagi, the most powerful storm to hit the region last year, which devastated Vietnam’s north, killing about 300 people and causing widespread damage to infrastructure, factories and farmland.
Residents and business owners have boarded up windows and stacked sandbags outside homes, restaurants and hotels, according to images posted by state media.
On Monday, the country’s Civil Aviation Authority closed two provincial airports in central Vietnam, and Vietnamese airlines cancelled or delayed dozens of flights as the typhoon approached, state media reported. Schools in Thanh Hoa were reportedly also closed for two days.
Authorities in the country’s central provinces activated emergency measures on Sunday, which included a plan to evacuate around 587,000 people from Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Hue and Danang provinces, banning fishing vessels from leaving shore and securing dams and flood walls, according to VNA.
Typhoon Kajiki forces mass evacuation in Vietnam, shuts China’s Sanya
