To safer ground

Workers moving fishing boats to safer places ahead of Typhoon Molave in Danang. The typhoon is forecast to hit Vietnam’s south central coast today where 1.3 million people in regions lying on the typhoon’s path could face evacuation.

THE country scrambled to evacuate more than a million people in its central lowlands as a strong typhoon approached while some regions are still dealing with the aftermath of recent killer floods, state media said.

Typhoon Molave is forecast to slam into Vietnam’s south central coast with sustained winds of up to 135kph today, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

The typhoon left at least three people dead and 13 missing and displaced more than 120,000 villagers in the Philippines before blowing toward Vietnam.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered provincial authorities on Monday to prepare to evacuate about 1.3 million people in regions lying on the typhoon’s path.

“We must keep our guard up to protect the lives of the people. That is the utmost important task to get people to safe places,” Phuc was quoted as saying in an emergency meeting with officials in charge of disaster response.

Those living in vulnerable, lowlying areas will head to sturdier shelters inland. The number of people to be evacuated may shrink as the typhoon’s path becomes more certain.

Phuc expressed fears that Molave, the latest disturbance to threaten Vietnam, could be as deadly as Typhoon Damrey, which battered the country in 2017 and left more than a hundred people dead.