HÀ NỘI — Tropical storm Pabuk, the first to hit the East Sea (South China Sea) this year, is heading toward the Gulf of Thailand but is still expected to cause heavy rains in southern Việt Nam.

The storm is moving west-northwest at a speed of 15km per hour and is expected to cause rough seas and heavy rains in southern localities from Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu to Cà Mau provinces, including Côn Đảo island District, and from Cà Mau to Kiên Giang provinces, including Phú Quốc island district and Thổ Chu island, according to the National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre.

The sea areas in the south of the Gulf of Thailand and the south of Cà Mau are forecast to experience rough seas and waves of up to five metres.

At 1pm on Thursday, the storm’s eye was 240km south of Cà Mau. Wind speeds at the eye reached up to 90 km per hour.

The eye will be 370km west-southwest of Thổ Chu island in southern Kiên Giang Province at 10pm on Friday.

It is expected to maintain its direction at a speed of 15-20km per hour and reach Thailand on Saturday.

The storm has caused heavy rains and thunderstorms in Ninh Thuận Province since Tuesday night with rainfall of 80-130mm per day.

Water release

Hundreds of hectares of crops in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng’s Đơn Dương District were flooded after a huge volume of water was released from Đa Nhim Hydropower Plant last week, Môi trường & Đô thị (Environment & Urban Affairs) online newspaper reported.

The plant started to release water last Friday at a level of 25cu.m per second, which then increased to 300-350cu.m per second. The release lasted through Saturday.

A representative from the district’s Division of Agriculture and Rural Development told the newspaper the they received reports about the plant’s water discharge from every three hours. More than 100ha of local farmers’ crops and assets were submerged.

Rescue activities are being carried out to help farmers mitigate the impact, he said.

Phạm Thị Hương, a farmer from the district, said the water came too quickly to prepare. “I lost all vegetables grown in my greenhouse, which is estimated to cost nearly VNĐ1 billion (US$43,000),” she said. — VNS