Hanoi (VNA) –Central and southern localities have employed an array of measures to brace forTyphoon Usagi, which is forecast to make landfall in the night of November 24 orNovember 25 morning. 

The central coastal province of Khanh Hoa has evacuated more than 2,840households with over 12,000 people to safer places, and encouraged 2,210farmers at aquaculture breeding cages at sea to move inland. Over 340 fishingboats have also been instructed to seek shelters.

On November 24, authoritiesof the central coastal province of Phu Yen also encouraged local residents tomove to safe places.

Vo Ngoc Kha, Chairman of theTuy Hoa city People’s Committee, said Long Thuy village in An Phu commune, theBach Dang residential area in ward 6, Ro hamlet in Phu Dong ward and Binh Ngoccommune in the city would be affected by flood tides and torrential rains.

Soldiers, policemen andmilitiamen in the locality are working round the clock to cope with the storm, saidthe official.

Other localities such as BinhThuan and Long An provinces have also completed preparations for the storm, theninth to hit the EastSea for far this year.

Meanwhile, the steering boardfor disaster prevention, and search and rescue of Ho Chi Minh City has instructed all ferriesin the locality to suspend operation as from 7pm on November 24 in anticipationof the storm.

The municipal HealthDepartment has also asked all hospitals in the city to stand ready for anyemergency.

As of November 24 morning, about 1,000 offshore fishing boats in the MekongDelta province ofTien Giang had been askedto sail out of dangerous areas and keep contact with inland competent agencies.

At 4:00 am on November 23,the typhoon’s centre was at 10.9 degrees north latitude and 113.8 degrees eastlongitude, about 450 km east of the coast of the south central and southernprovinces from Ninh Thuan to Ba Ria – Vung Tau. The storm's strongest windswere at a speed of 60 – 75 km per hour, according to the National Centre forHydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

In the next 24 hours, it is forecast to movewest at 10 - 15 km per hour and may gain more strength. The storm withsustained wind speeds at 75 – 100 km per hour will be about 230 km east of thecoast of provinces from Ninh Thuan to Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

At 4:00 am of November 25, the storm willcontinue moving west at 10 – 15 km per hour and make landfall in the areabetween coastal provinces in south central and east southern regions. It isthen weakened to a tropical depression, the centre said.

The typhoon will cause torrential rains forsouth-central and south-east provinces, it added. Localities stretching fromThua Thien – Hue to Binh Thuan provinces and inthe southern Central Highlands region mightsuffer downpour with rainfall up to 300-500mm.-VNA