Typhoon prompts evacuation

2006-09-30 11:04

Hanoi - Vietnam said on Saturday it was trying to evacuate more than 150 000 people from high risk areas before the arrival of Typhoon Xangsane, which killed dozens of people when it tore through the Philippines.

Officials are especially keen to avoid a repeat of a typhoon in May, when hundreds of people were killed or went missing as dozens of boats disappeared at sea in what was seen as a failure of the nation's storm-response system.

The national meteorological centre said strong winds were expected by Saturday evening, while a flood and storm official said the typhoon would hit overnight in the early hours of Sunday (around 18:00 GMT on Saturday).

"We are getting prepared," said Truong Ngoc Nhi, deputy chairperson of the people's committee in the central province of Quang Ngai.

"By late Saturday, we will have evacuated thousands of people to safer areas."

In Da Nang province, deputy prime minister Nguyen Sinh Hung told a newspaper, the government had undertaken its biggest-ever mobilisation of emergency resources "to fight this typhoon efficiently and minimise losses".

Nine coastal provinces which are expected to be directly hit will evacuate more than 152 000 people, according to the website of the central committee for flood and storm control.

It said it was also trying to make contact with 169 fishing vessels which were still at sea, with more than one thousand people aboard.

State media said the relief effort could be the biggest ever organised ahead of a natural disaster in the communist nation.

Xangsane is headed toward Vietnam after wreaking devastation in the Philippines, where it left 62 people dead and 68 missing after hitting on Thursday, according to official figures.

Millions of people in the Philippines were still without electricity on Saturday.

With time and advance warning of the storm's progress, authorities want to avoid any repetition of the disaster when Typhoon Chanchu hit in May, leaving 267 people dead or missing.

The deputy prime minister has already threatened local officials with heavy administrative sanctions if necessary measures are not taken.

- AFP