According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, tropical storm Rai, the 4^th to enter the East Sea so far this year, hit the central coastal provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai last night.

A fishing boat being brought ashore

After striking the mainland, the storm weakened into a tropical depression and then into a depression by the early morning of Tuesday.

At 6.00am on Tuesday, the depression’s centre was positioned at latitude 15°8’N and longitude 107°8’E.  The strongest wind speeds near its centre were at level 6/7.

The expected path of the tropical depression. Photo: Nat’l Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting

For the next 12 hours, the depression will continue moving in a west-north-west direction at a speed of between 15 and 20kph, and it will then weaken into a low pressure zone with winds of less than 40kph in southern Laos.

The storm was not predicted to be too strong, but that it could cause widespread flooding in coastal areas in the central region.  Therefore, on Monday, Da Nang’s Steering Committees for Natural Disaster Mitigation and Control, and Search and Rescue asked local relevant agencies to take various proactive measures to prepare for the arrival of the storm. 

The Da Nang Border Guard High Command and the municipal Coastal Information Station made every effort to keep all fishing boats operating at sea well informed of the storm’s position, its direction and movement.  This allowed them to take the initiative to quickly return to port or seek safe shelter from the storm.  Local offshore fishing boats were not being allowed to head out to sea, and relevant agencies were asked to keep in close contact with boats at sea in order to handle any unexpected incidents.

By noon yesterday, hundreds of fishing boats had been seen anchored at the Tho Quang fishing wharf and the Man Quang Bay.   A total of 5,185 fishermen on 1,422 fishing vessels at sea had been informed about the storm’s developments and movements.

So far, no human casualties have been reported in the city.  All local pupils, from primary to senior levels, are off school today following a decision yesterday by the Municipal Department of Education and Training to close all schools. 

Flooding on a section of Nguyen Van Linh Street

Due to the effects of the low pressure, severe downpours have caused flooding at some locations in the inner city.  Between 8.00am and 11.00am on Monday, incessant heavy downpours inundated some sections of major local streets including Nguyen Van Linh, Do Quang, Dang Thai Mai, To Ngoc Van and Quang Trung.  This caused traffic chaos and made these areas dangerous for road users.  It was reported that these roads were submerged in floodwaters of between 20cm and 40cm deep.

In an attempt to deal with the flooding, employees from the city’s Water Drainage and Wastewater Treatment Company quickly began dredging thick sludge and rubbish out of the local drainage systems at local flood points.  The company’s Director, Mr Mai Ma, said that all the sluice gates at the local pumping station would be opened in case of prolonged torrential rain to ease flooding in the city.

Today, the central coastal provinces from Nghe An to Thua Thien-Hue continue to experience torrential rain.  In particular, total rainfall at 50-100 millimetres is predicted to be recorded in the provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien- Hue.

Over the next 3 days, Da Nang is predicted to see sunny weather in the daytime and scattered showers at night, with temperatures ranging between 24 and 31 degrees Celsius.