Hanoi (VNA) – The National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Controlhas alerted coastal localities and relevant ministries and agencies about a newstorm which is moving towards the East Sea, especially when the central regionis still struggling with large-scale flooding.
The newstorm, named Saudel, is moving west-northwest at 20-25 km per hour and forecastto enter the East Sea on October 21 while gaining strength. By 13:00 on October21, the storm’s eye will be around 650km to the east-southeast of Hoang Sa (Paracel)archipelago, packing wind of 70-90km per hour with gusts of up to 110km perhour.
In a dispatchissued on October 20, the steering committee required localities to closelyfollow the movement of Saudel and quickly inform vessels operating at sea aboutthe approaching storm so that they can steer clear of the dangerous zones atsea.
Storm Saudelposes a big threat to Vietnam’s central provinces which have already beendevastated by historic floods triggered by 30-year record rainfall of up to3,000 mm in the past 10 days.
The floodinghas isolated many communities and affected the lives of more than 135,000 households.
The disaster claimed 102 lives and left 25 missing as of 5pm on October 19; destroyed 12 highways and 17.4km of local roads; damaged 924 ha of rice and 106,616 ha of other crops; andkilled or washed away more than half a million heads of cattle and poultry./.