Evacuations as ‘worst storm in decade’ set to batter Vietnam

Vietnam on Thursday ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate its central coastal area as Typhoon Doksuri closed in, with officials predicting the storm could be the most powerful in a decade.

Doksuri is expected to make landfall in Vietnam midday on Friday. Officials ordered an offshore fishing ban, while some 47,000 people in Ha Tinh province began leaving their homes Thursday, according to an official from the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority.

The storm is forecast to lash four central provinces with heavy rain and winds of up to 155 kilometers per hour, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Panicked residents fortified their homes and hauled boats in from the water on Thursday.

“We have prepared sandbags to put on the roof so when the storm arrives it won’t be blown off,” Nguyen Thi Que, a resident of Ha Tinh province, said on news site Zing.

Further evacuations are expected in neighboring Quang Binh, Nghe An and Quang Tri provinces.

“[We] have to evacuate people resolutely, even forcefully ... to avoid any casualties when the storm arrives,” Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung said Thursday.

Vietnam issued a category four “danger” warning, the second most severe of its five-tier warning system.

The government said it had 250,000 soldiers on standby along with a fleet of vehicles and boats at the ready.

Vietnam has already been hit by severe weather this year, with 140 people dead or missing in natural disasters since January, according to official figures.