Vietnam has shut down airports, closed schools, and initiated mass evacuations as it prepares for the most powerful storm so far this year.
Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, Typhoon Kajiki was packing winds of up to 103 mph as it approached Vietnam’s central coast and was forecast to grow stronger before making landfall on Monday afternoon, the country’s weather agency said.
“This is an extremely dangerous fast-moving storm,” the government said in a statement Sunday night, warning that Kajiki would bring heavy rains, flooding and landslides.
Authorities said on Sunday that more than half a million people would be evacuated and ordered boats to stay ashore.
With a long coastline facing the South China Sea, Vietnam is prone to storms that are often deadly and trigger dangerous flooding and mudslides.
The Vietnamese government said Kajiki was expected to be as powerful as Typhoon Yagi, which battered the country less than a year ago, killing about 300 people and causing $3.3 billion of property damage.