Coastal residents evacuate as Typhoon Nari nears

October 14, 2013 | 16:49

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Thousands of coastal households in central Vietnam have been ordered to move to safe areas before typhoon Nari, with gale-force winds gusting up to 150kph, makes landfall early on October 15.

At 13.00 on October 13 Nari, the 11th of its kind to hit the East Sea this year, was positioned 220km east of the central coast from Quang Tri to Quang Ngai provinces, packing winds of between 134-149kph near its centre.

Typhoon Nari is expected to pound the central coast early on October 15

In the next 12 hours, Nari will be travelling between west and north-west at a speed of 10-15km and is forecast to strike the central coast early in the morning.

In the face of the approaching powerful storm, a mandatory order of evacuation has been released, according to which people living in the low-lying areas in Quang Nam, Danang, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Binh and Quang Tri will move to safer grounds before 19.00 on October 14.

MARD Minister Cao Duc Phat inspecting storm prevention in Thua Thien-Hue

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat asked several coastal localities to allow students to stay at home for safety reasons.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai asked the designated provinces to call in fishing vessels to seek storm shelters and reinforce public works before 19.00 on October 14.

Two Government working missions left Hanoi for central provinces on October 14 to inspect storm prevention.

Danang planned to evacuate 11,000 households, Quang Nam 36,000 and Thua Thien-Hue 3,600.

Hundreds of reservoirs in 11 central provinces from Thanh Hoa to Quang Ngai are on full alert as they have been saturated after the recent Wutip storm.

Nari si expected to bring heavy rain to the central region in the couple of days that forces reservoirs to discharge large volume of waters, and mass flooding is inevitable.

Deputy PM Hai asked provincial People’s Committee leaders to directly control the discharge following warnings from meteorologists to minimise damage.

VOV

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