Proactive response urged as Nakri could be strongest storm of the year

The senior government official on November 8 chaired a teleconference of the Steering Committee with coastal provinces and cities from Da Nang to Ninh Thuan, discussing urgent measures to deal with Nakri, the sixth typhoon from the East Sea this year. The storm is forecast to gain further strength while heading towards the South Central Coast.

As reported by the director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF), Mai Van Khiem, at 7am this morning, the storm was at about 290 km northeast from Song Tu Tay Island (under Vietnam’s Spratly Archipelago), with wind speeds reaching level 11 (100-115 km/h) on the Beaufort scale.

In the next 24 hours, the typhoon is likely to move in a west-southwest direction at 5-10 km every hour, getting stronger on the way. It is forecast that by the evening of November 10, the storm will make landfall on the mainland from Quang Ngai to Khanh Hoa provinces.

According to Khiem, it is unusual for Vietnam to face such a U-turn moving typhoon like Nakri, as it have changed its direction from west to east, before making a U-turn to head to the mainland.

It is likely that the storm will reach its maximum intensity when travelling across the northern part of Spratly Archipelago, with a maximum wind speed of 115-135km/hour. However, up to this point, it is impossible to predict in detail the intensity and the time that Nakri will make landfall.

Deputy PM Dung said it is a strong storm with the most complicated developments since the beginning of the year, after the previous Storm Matmo that swept the central region in late October.

Asking for urgent measures to deal with the approaching typhoon, the deputy PM required the Steering Committee and other relevant authorities to ensure safety for vehicles and labourers at sea, while strictly managing activities at sea and keeping regular contact with fishing boats to ask them to take shelter.

The concerned localities and the functional forces should consider a sea ban and allow students to leave schools, while actively relocating and evacuating labourers on aquacultural farms to a safe place, Dung added.

Measures should be carried out to ensure safety for production, business and tourism activities, as well as construction works, establishments, houses, sea dikes and reservoirs, especially the safety for people in mountainous and midland areas that are prone to flash floods and landslides.

The related authorities should monitor the storm’s progress to actively coordinate with other ministries and localities in responding to Nakri, he suggested, asking the media to continue to provide timely and accurate information on the developments of the storm to help the people to take active response.