The Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control held a meeting on Thursday morning to assess the development of Storm Goni. Photo hanoimoi.com.vn

HÀ NỘI The central provinces of Quảng Ngãi, Binh Định, Phú Yên and Khánh Hòa evacuated 2,178 households on Thursday from areas at risk of flash floods and landslides as Storm Goni heads to the region.

The provinces have also made plans and prepared facilities to relocate over 28,000 people if needed.

Localities from Đà Nẵng to Khánh Hòa have imposed travel restrictions at sea.

At 7am on Thurdsay, Storm Goni was about 280km off the coast of central provinces from Quảng Ngãi to Phú Yên.

It is forecast to head towards Quảng Nam to Ninh Thuận later on Thursday or early Friday morning and turn into a low tropical pressure system before making landfall with wind speeds reaching 70-80km per hour.

Hoàng Phúc Lâm, vice director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said that provinces from Quảng Nam to Ninh Thuận and Lý Sơn Island were likely to see rough seas with 3-4m waves and wind speeds gusting to 75-88km per hour.

“Another storm is expected to enter the East Sea later this week,” Lâm said.

Nguyễn Văn Tiến, vice chief secretariat of the office of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, said that although Goni was weakening, strong winds still posed a risk to vessels at sea.

He said people who did not follow the travel restrictions would be seriously punished. It was reported that 19 vessels were still operating off Khánh Hòa, Quảng Nam and Bình Định provinces regardless of the warnings.

According to statistics from the committee, the recent Storm Molave caused severe floods and landslides, leaving 83 people dead or missing.

On Thursday morning, 310 homes in Nghệ An were still submerged, and roads remained blocked in seven locations along National Highway 49 in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province due to landslides. Power has yet to be reconnected to 24 communes in Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi, and more than 250 houses in Bình Định, Kon Tum and Đà Nẵng were in need of repair. VNS