HANOI: Vietnam has shut down airports, closed schools, and initiated mass evacuations as it prepares for the most powerful storm so far this year.
Typhoon Kajiki was packing winds of up to 166kph as it approached Vietnam’s central coast and was forecast to grow stronger before making landfall on Monday (Aug 25) afternoon, the country’s weather agency said.
“This is an extremely dangerous fast-moving storm,” the government said in a statement on Sunday night, warning that Kajiki would bring heavy rains, flooding and landslides.
The storm was 150km off the central coast as of midnight GMT (8am, Singapore time), the weather agency said. The eye of the storm is forecast to hit an area between Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces around 9am GMT.
With a long coastline facing the South China Sea, Vietnam is prone to storms that are often deadly and trigger dangerous flooding and mudslides.
Source: CNA
