Measures urged to actively respond to new strong storm near East Sea

As reported by the National Centre for Hydro – Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF), Storm Phanfone is circulating off the coast of the Philippines and is likely to head to Vietnam in a couple of days.

To circumvent the upcoming typhoon, on Tuesday morning (Dec 24), the Standing Office of the Central Steering Committees for Natural Disaster Management and Disaster Response and Search and Rescue sent an urgent telegraph to the relevant ministries, agencies and localities, urging for active response to the violent storm.

The latest update from the NCHMF showed that as of 1pm today, Phanfone was located at about 200km southeast of the central coast of the Philippines, with the strongest winds blowing 100-115km/hour.

Over the next 24 to 48 hours, the typhoon is likely to move in a northwest-west direction, traveling at about 15km per hour to enter the East Sea. At 1pm on December 27, the storm’s centre is located at about 330 km northeast of Song Tu Tay Island under Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago, packing winds blowing from 90-115km/hour.

In order to proactively respond to the storm movements, the Standing Office requested its local units and other related authorities to promptly inform vessels operating on the sea to be aware of the location, direction and movement of the storm to take preventive measures, while closely monitoring its developments, counting the number of vessels operating on the sea and keeping active communications with the captains and owners of vessels.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was urged to proactively send notes to neighbouring countries and territories to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese fishermen’s boats to seek storm shelters.

The relevant Steering Committees for natural disaster management and search and rescue, under their assigned functions, should prepare plans to cope with the storm and get ready to promptly organise search and rescue missions upon request.

The media and coastal information stations should regularly update the storm’s progress to the mass media so that the authorities, vessels’ owners operating at sea and the people know and take the initiative to respond to the storm.