Hundreds of thousands of people living along the central and north-central coastal provinces have been ordered to evacuate from high-risk areas as Haiyan, the most destructive storm in history, is heading towards Vietnam.

At 01.00pm on November 9, Haiyan was 240km north east of the Song Tu Tay island of Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago, packing sustained winds of 163kph near its centre.

In the next 24 hours, it will travel north-west at a speed of 30-35kph along the central coast.

It is likely to change its course and race along the central coast from Thua Thien-Hue up to Thanh Hoa provinces before weakening into a low depression.

At an urgent meeting on November 9, weather officials Haiyan will head towards the central coast of Quang Ngai and Danang early on November 11 and change its course, churning along the coastal provinces.

The typhoon will quickly be downgraded into a tropical depression that could dump heavy rains of between 100-300mm, even 500mm, on central-north-central and northern provinces.

They warned heavy downpours accompanied by strong winds could trigger huge flash floods and landslides in mountain localities.

Sand bags were placed on roof sheets in Danang city

Bui Minh Tang, director of the National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre, proposed mountain and flood-prone localities hasten residential evacuations from high-risk areas before the typhoon makes landfall on November 10.

Quang Ngai province would be one of the first central localities Haiyan rips through late on November 10. Local residents are racing against time to reinforce their houses and public works with sand bags to minimise property damage.

Nearly 90,000 people in high-risk and low-lying areas have fled their homes to concrete buildings such as the local administration’s headquarters, schools and cultural houses. Military bunkers have also been opened to receive evacuees.

They only brought with them blankets, mosquito-nets, mats, and other daily necessities such as drinking water, instant noodles, and even rechargeable lights.   

Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc inspected pier No1 of Dung Quat Oil Refinery (Photo:VGP)

In an inspection tour of Dung Quat oil refinery, the first of its kind in Vietnam, in Quang Ngai on November 9, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said top priority is given to ensuring people’s lives and coercive mandatory evacuation measures are put in place if necessary.

At the Dung Quat Oil refinery, the plant’s leadership briefed Phuc on their storm prevention work, saying they have removed professional equipment such as ladders, scaffoldings, and maintenance devices and put them in the warehouse.

The leadership and employees will work around the clock to deal with the worst possible case. They have also stockpiles necessities such as instant noodles, drinking water, medicines, and mosquito-nets to support local displaced residents.

A mobile loudspeaker is used to keep Binh Dinh residents up to date on the typhoon's track

Neighbouring Thua Thien-Hue province has planned to evacuate 113,000 people before Haiyan batters the central region. All offshore fishing trawlers have been called in to avoid rough seas.   

Relevant forces have prepared 100 tonnes of rice, 100 tonnes of instant noodles, and 200,000 litres of oil and petrol to be supplied to people in cut-off areas.

Nam Dong and A Luoi mountain districts have also stockpiled 30 tonnes of rice, 10 tonnes of salt and other necessities for local residents in the event of severe flooding and landslides.

During his inspection tour of the province on November 9, Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai recalled the huge damage the previous tropical storms caused to Thua Thien-Hue, saying a storm sustaining winds of only around 100kph struck Hue city in 2006, claiming thousands of local lives.

He noted Haiyan is a destructive storm, and with winds gusting up to 220kph it could even blow away concrete houses. Without thorough preparedness, damage could be huge, he said.

He asked the provincial authorities to take prompt actions to ensure people living in flood- and landslide-prone areas are moved to safer grounds and key public works are reinforced, in order to minimise casualties and property damage.

VOV/VNA/VNN