Deputy PM asks for proactive response to typhoon Sarika

Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung asked local and central agencies, and localities to make all-out effort to deal with typhoon Sarika, which entered the East Sea on October 16 as the seventh storm this year.

He chaired a teleconference on October 16 with the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, the National Committee for Search and Rescue, and authorities from 22 localities from the northern port city of Hai Phong to the central province of Quang Binh on preparations for the typhoon.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, who heads the Steering Committee, said Sarika is powerful with unpredictable developments.

If it moves as forecast, it will be the late and off-season storm hitting the northern region, he said, warning that complex situations would possibly happen as the northern central region is still tackling the consequences of torrential rains and severe floods.

Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung requested municipal and provincial people’s committees to keep a close watch on the movement of the storm and informed vehicles operating at sea to stay away from the area of danger and take shelter.

He asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting to regularly update the typhoon’s movement to support proactive preparations.

Ministries and localities should stand ready with prepared response activities, he said.

Typhoon Sarika passed Luzon Island of the Philippines and entered the East Sea on the morning of October 16.

At 8am of the day, the centre of Sarika was on the western coast of Luzon Island with the strongest winds in the eyewall of 150-165km per hour, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

In the next 24 hours, the storm is predicted to move west-northwest and then westwards at a speed of 20-25km per hour.

At 7am of October 17, its eye is expected at about 16.7 degrees north latitude and 114.6 degrees east longitude, about 250km east of Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago. Sarika can keep sustaining winds of up to 150-165km per hour.-VNA