HÀ NỘI — The Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention on Monday requested its subordinate agencies “not to underestimate” and proactively prepare to respond to a tropical depression.

A tropical depression was formed on Monday in the waters near the Philippines. It moved in the northwest direction at 20-25km per hour and hit coastal Quảng Ninh Province and the port city of Hải Phòng yesterday afternoon.

It is expected to cause downpours of 50-150mm in the Northeast region and the North Central Coast, and then revert to a low-pressure area. Heavy rainfall is expected to cause floods and landslides in the mountainous provinces of Quảng Ninh, Lạng Sơn, Cao Bằng and Bắc Kạn, as well as Thái Nguyên and Tuyên Quang.

Trần Quang Hoài, director general of the Việt Nam Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), warned concerned authorities “not to underestimate the tropical depression even though it is not strong.”

“Localities must closely collaborate to follow and respond to the tropical depression’s developments, especially those that are still recovering from the aftermath of Storm Doksuri,” he said.

The Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention yesterday sent official telegrams to the steering committees for natural disaster prevention and control, as well as search and rescue teams in localities, requesting their preparedness to respond to the tropical depression.

It also requested leaders of the coastal localities from Quảng Ninh to Hà Tĩnh and concerned authorities to call fishermen fishing offshore back home, count and provide moorings for fishing vessels, and relocate aquaculture cages, as well as residents in landslide-prone areas and mineral mines and pits, to safer areas.

All fishing, transport and tourism activities at sea must be halted. Tourists on islands and in coastal areas must be informed of the tropical depression’s developments and provided shelter to avoid accidents due to flash floods and landslides.

Media agencies should provide constant reports on the tropical depression’s developments, as well as updates on rains and floods, so that local authorities and residents can proactively respond to the situation.

By 6am yesterday, some 27,400 fishing vessels and tourist boats, 90,000 labourers and 2,600 owners and workers at 1,900 fishing cages and guard huts in Quảng Ninh and Hà Tĩnh provinces had been informed of the tropical depression’s location, Colonel Trần Dương Kiên of the Border Guard Command, said.

Authorities of coastal Quảng Ninh Province and Hải Phòng City have refused permission to fishing vessels and tourist boats to travel to adjacent islands and vice versa yesterday morning. — VNS