Vietnam prepares to evacuate 1.3 million people as typhoon approaches. Photo: TWD

1.3 million forced to evacuate Vietnam in the wake of a typhoon

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | OCTOBER 26th 2020

Vietnamese officials have gone underway of evacuating 1.3 million people to a safer distance in the wake of the typhoon Molave, which had just recently washed over the Philippines and caused several disappearances, alongside flooding, landslides and severe damages.

In a critical warning, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that “This is a very strong typhoon that will impact a large area,” and urged that all of those in and around the direct path of the typhoon commence evacuation as soon as possible. The effects of the typhoon are expected to be catastrophic. “Troops must deploy full force to support people, including mobilizing helicopters, tanks and other means of transportation if needed.”

At present, the storm is gathering over the South China Sea and has been projected by Vietnam's National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting to turn into a category 2 before it is to make landfall in Vietnam on Wednesday. Evacuations have already begun on Monday.

This is the fourth major storm to hit the country this month, with a toll of 130 dead built up as a result, along with 20 people still considered missing. Landslides and flooding have, thus, been a very big problem in Vietnam as of late.

According to a report by World Bank last week, nearly 12 million people living along the Vietnamese coast could be at risk of suffering flooding damages. The report added that about 35% of these coastal settlements are located on crowded and eroding coastlines, which makes the possibility of destruction alongside landslides all the more likely.

The director of the national forecast centre, Mai Van Khiem had said during a Monday meeting that the central Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces were where the storm was most expected to make landfall.

“If the storm comes as strong as forecast, damage from rains and floods will be extremely huge,” Prime Minister Phuc added. He further compared the incoming storm to typhoon Damrey from 2017, which caused severe damages and led to the deaths of 106 people.

“The storm is too strong,” said Tran Quang Hoai, deputy head of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control who used the typhoon’s terrific strength level to justify the mass evacuation of over 1.2 million Vietnamese residents. Over the course of the past three weeks, the Vietnamese regions had been ruined by constant storms, bringing about damages and floods which government officials described as “the worse in five years.”