The Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control and the National Committee on Search and Rescue on August 5 sent an urgent dispatch to localities and ministries calling for active response to a risk of a storm that may come from a tropical depression.

By 4 pm the same day, the depression was around 280km from the east of Vietnam’s Song Tu Tay island. It is likely to grow into a storm with a rapid wind speed and unpredictable movements.

The committees urged its chapters in provinces and cities from the central Thanh Hoa province to the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau to inform ships operating offshore of the position and movement of the depression in order to escape from the dangerous area.

Between July 27 and August 5, heavy rains resulted from storm Jebi, which hit northern provinces on August 3, caused serious flooding in Yen Bai province.

More than 40 houses were damaged while many roads and a wide area of crops were submerged with an estimated loss of nearly 11 billion VND (over 500,000 USD).-VNA