Tropical Storm Mindulle skirts past China - heads for Vietnam

Tropical Storm Mindulle slipped past China's southern most province of Hainan yesterday and continued on its track towards northern Vietnam. Mindulle is a strong tropical storm with windspeed of 108 km/hr (67.5 MPH). The storm is moving fast across the South China Sea at 20 km/hr bringing heavy and prolonged rain with it as it approaches land. It is expected to slam into Vietnam's north central coast Tuesday evening.

Mindulle to slam into central coast (VietnamNet Bridge)

The eye of storm, the third of the year, is expected to fall at 18.3 degrees north and 107.0 degrees east, or about 80km north-east of the coastal provinces from Nghe An to Quang Binh, at 1pm today with winds gusting to 133kph at its centre.

It is forecast to gain strength as it travels west-northwest during the next 24 hours at 15kph.

The storm delivered rain to central provinces yesterday with average falls of between 20mm-60mm; the heaviest was 297mm in Quang Ngai Province.

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Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai yesterday asked the administrators of potentially vulnerable localities to take drastic measures to cope with Storm Mindulle.

The storm was moving quickly and was accompanied by prolonged and heavy rain, he said.

This meant the priority should be to ensure the soundness of reservoirs and the evacuation of people in flash-flood and landslide-prone zones as well as aquaculture farms.

Hai, who was speaking at a meeting of the National Flood and Storm Prevention and Control Committee and relevant ministries and agencies, said the hydrometeorological forecast centre must closely monitor the storm’s progress and provide updated information to allow a prompt response.

Evacuations have already begun with as many as 74,000 people being evacuated from coastal villages.

Vietnam braces for tropical storm Mindulle, evacuating tens of thousands of people(Canadian Press)

HANOI, Vietnam — A disaster official says Vietnam has begun evacuating tens of thousands of people from high-risk areas as tropical storm Mindulle churns toward the country's north-central coast.

Weather forecasters said Mindulle strengthened as it moved across the South China Sea packing winds of 104 kilometres per hour (65 mph).

The tropical storm, the third to hit the country this year, was expected to slam into the coast later Tuesday in the provinces of Nghe An and Thanh Hoa.

Mindulle, whose name means Dandilion in Korean, has already brought heavy rain and flooding to the region and is causing severe flooding in northern Thailand.

Storm Mindulle brings torrential rain(Bangkok Post)

Tropical storm Mindulle has brought torrential rain causing flooding in many provinces in the North and Northeast.

A Meteorological Department's advirosy issued at 4am on Tuesday said tropical storm Mindulle was centred about 150km east of Donghoi, Vietnam, with maximum sustained wind of 95km per hour.

The storm was expected to move west-northwest about 18km per hour and make landfall over upper Vietnam on Tuesday night.

It was causing an active monsoon trough across northern and northeastern Thailand, bringing torrential rain.

People along hill slopes and waterways in the North, Northeast and East are warned of possible flash floods during this period.

Heavy rain was reported in many provinces in the Northeast on Tuesday morning.