Senior officials have given strong warnings about the approaching typhoon Mindulle, which is predicted to bring prolonged, heavy rains before and after reaching the Vietnamese mainland, Voice of Vietnam (VOV) has reported.
At an urgent meeting in Hanoi on Monday, the National Center for Hydrometeorology Forecast warned that the typhoon could possibly hold rainfall of up to 300 or 400mm, especially in the next few days, threatening flash floods and landslides in some areas of Vietnam.
Presiding over the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai asked ministries and localities to recall ships and boats operating at sea and press agencies to provide timely information on the storm development.
He said provinces in the northern mountainous and north central region need to relocate people living in areas prone to flash floods or landslides.
The Deputy PM also emphasized measures to prevent flooding which might be caused by heavy rain in urban areas and asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to send working groups to Hanoi, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, and Nghe An.
The National Committee for Search and Rescue requested all cities, provinces and ministries contact and inform the owners of boats and vessels about Typhoon Mindulle and where to take shelter.
The High Command of Border Guards said 58,177 boats and vessels, including 20 from Quang Ngai province, have been contacted and guided back to the mainland. However, 10 ships are still out of contact.
Meanwhile, seven people were missing after a landslide buried their hillside farms in northern Vietnam, officials said Monday.
The landslide hit without warning amid sunny weather Sunday, said Vu Tien Duc, deputy party chief of the Mu Cang Chai district in the province of Yen Bai.
The victims, including two boys aged 7 and 15, were harvesting corn on terraced fields on the hillside.
"I don't think they could have survived," said Luong Tuan Anh, a storm and flood control official in Yen Bai. "How could they survive when such a huge amount of earth fell on them?"
Anh said Yen Bai had suffered heavy rains in the past month and that water absorbed in the earth might have caused the landslide.
Authorities began rescue operations late Sunday, but no victims had been found, Anh said.
Vietnam is a disaster-prone country where heavy rains and flooding kill hundreds of people every year.
According to Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, disasters have killed an average of 750 people each year for the past 10 years and caused losses of 1.5 per cent of Vietnam's gross domestic product.
State media last week reported that almost 350,000 Vietnamese households need to be relocated over the next five years from areas vulnerable to flash floods and landslides.
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