At 4:00 am of July 18, its eye was about 470km west of Hoang Sa with the strongest winds near the storm’s eye reaching 75-90km per hour.
In the next 24 hours, Storm Son Tinh is quickly moving in westerly direction at a speed of 25-30km per hour.
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A team of border guards and representatives from the Cua Sot fishing port's management board in Ha Tinh province carry out a patrol in a shelter area for boats |
On its moving course, the storm caused strong rainstorms and rough sea along the west of the North East Sea, and high tides in coastal areas of the northern and north central region.
It will also cause heavy rains until July 20 in the northern delta and midland.
Mountainous areas in the northern and north central regions have been put on high alert for flash floods and landslides, while flood is forecast for lowland and urban areas in the provinces of Hai Duong, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thai Binh, Hoa Binh and Hanoi, as well as localities from Thanh Hoa to Quang Tri.
Localities across the northern and north central regions are bracing for the storm.
The northern province of Nam Dinh has banned ships to go offshore as from 5am July 18, while vessels operating at sea have been asked to return to land or seek shelters. The provincial authorities also ordered the evacuation of workers at aquaculture farms along the coast before 12am of July 18.
On July 17, the Steering Committee of natural disaster prevention, search and rescue and firefighting of the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh issued a notice on banning vessels from going offshore, and tourism boats from anchoring at tourism sites at sea as from 18pm the same day.
In the central coastal province of Quang Tri, all 2,312 fishing boats of the province with 7,500 laborers on board had been informed of the storm, and 2,274 of them had returned to land in the afternoon of July 17.
Source: VNA