Vietnam evacuates tens of thousands ahead of Typhoon Kajiki

Vietnam evacuated tens of thousands of residents of the coastal areas on Monday before the arrival of the Kajiki typhoon, which should tie the country’s central belt with wind strokes of around 140 km for.

The typhoon – The fifth to assign Vietnam this year – is currently at sea, swirling the Gulf of Tonkin with waves up to 9.5 meters (31 feet).

More than 325,500 residents of five coastal provinces were planned for the evacuation of schools and public buildings converted into temporary shelters, the authorities announced.

The city of the Vinh seafront was whispered during the night, its streets largely deserted by the morning with most of the closed shops and restaurants while residents and business owners have sandpit.

At dawn, nearly 30,000 people had been evacuated from the region, while 16,000 soldiers were mobilized.

Two domestic airports were closed and all the fishing boats on the Typhon path were recalled at the port.

“I have never heard of a typhoon of this large scale to come in our city,” said the Manh Tung, 66 years old, in an interior sports stadium in Vinh, where evacuated families have dinner on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.

“I’m a little afraid, but we must then accept it because it is nature-we can do nothing,” he told AFP, among a few dozen people camped on the evacuation site on Monday morning.

The typhoon is expected to mark land around 3:00 p.m. (0800 GMT) for packaging winds approximately 139 kilometers per hour (86 miles per hour), said the national center of Vietnam for hydro-Metero-meterian forecasts.

“The rain will continue today and tomorrow, and with these enormous risks of precipitation for floods and sudden floods on rivers are very high,” said director Mai Van Khiem.

‘Never so big’

Scientists say that climate change of human origin leads to more intense and unpredictable weather conditions which can make floods and destructive storms more likely, especially under the tropics.

“Normally, we get storms and floods, but never so big,” said Evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan, 52.

The power of the typhoon is due to dissipate considerably after having marked the landing.

Typhon’s Warning Center said that the conditions suggested “an approximate weakening trend as the system approaches the continental plateau in the Gulf of Tonkin where there are fewer ocean heat”.

More than a dozen national Vietnamese flights were canceled on Sunday, while the Chinese tropical vacation island in Hainan evacuated around 20,000 inhabitants while the typhoon passed its south.

The main city of the island, Sanya, has closed picturesque zones and has stopped commercial operations.

In Vietnam, more than 100 people were killed or left disappeared in natural disasters during the first seven months of 2025, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Economic losses have been estimated at more than $ 21 million.

Vietnam underwent $ 3.3 billion in economic losses last September following Typhoon Yagi, which swept the north of the country and caused hundreds of deaths.

© 2025 AFP