Typhoon Bebinca is quickly heading towards the mainland of the northern and central provinces on Wednesday morning and will blanket the localities with torrential rains starting around midnight on Wednesday – Vietnamnews reported
The torrential rains, with rainfall of up to 350mm, are predicted to last until late Friday night.
The National Committee for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting said that by 10am on Wednesday, the typhoon was 450km away from the north-eastern province of Quảng Ninh’s Móng Cái City, with the strongest wind speeds near its eye reaching 90km per hour.
It was moving west-southwest at 15km per hour, the centre said.
The centre forecast that the typhoon would make landfall in provinces from Hải Phòng to Nghệ An by 10am on Friday.
Due to the typhoon’s influence, water levels could rise by two to four metres in the Hồng (Red) – Thái Bình river system and waters could swell by three to six metres in rivers from Thanh Hóa to Nghệ An between Thursday and Saturday.
Localities of Lai Châu, Sơn La, Hoà Bình, Yên Bái, Phú Thọ, Quảng Ninh, Lạng Sơn, Cao Bằng, Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An have been put on high alert for flash floods and landslides while urban areas in Hà Nội, Ninh Bình, Phủ Lý, Nam Định, Hà Nam, Hưng Yên, Quảng Ninh and Hải Phòng are forecast to face inundation, the centre said.
A team from the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, led by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoàng Quốc Vượng, went to localities of Hòa Bình, Sơn La, Điện Biên and Lai Châu to check their preparedness for the typhoon on Tuesday afternoon.
The inspection, carried out between Tuesday and Friday, aims to make sure that the localities take prompt action to ensure local residents are safe during the typhoon as well as to minimise property damage.