On August 24, the Government Portal reported that in the face of the very strong storm No. 5, high natural disaster risk, and complicated developments that will directly affect the mainland of the Central provinces, the Prime Minister has just established a Forward Steering Committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha to direct storm prevention and control work.
The Standing Office of the National Civil Defense Steering Committee shall preside over and coordinate with Military Region 4 and relevant ministries and branches to ensure logistics work, arrange means, equipment, and communication to serve the activities of the Forward Steering Committee in all situations.
It is expected that this evening, in Military Region 4 (Nghe An province), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh - Head of the National Civil Defense Steering Committee will chair a direct and online meeting on the response to storm No. 5 and floods caused by storms.
According to a quick report from the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting at the meeting (updated at 3:00 p.m.), storm No. 5 is one of the most dangerous storms in recent years.
On the evening of August 24, the storm has strengthened to level 13, gusting to level 15 and is expected to reach level 14, gusting to level 16 in the next 12 hours. This is a storm with a wide circulation, moving very quickly, passing through the sea with a water surface temperature of up to 30°C, and being supplemented with energy from the southwest monsoon, so the possibility of the storm continuing to strengthen is very high.
A special point to note is that storm No. 5 causes a combined impact: At sea, there are very strong winds, big rivers and floodwaters, on land there are strong winds, especially heavy rain, locally over 600-700 mm, leading to the risk of widespread flooding, flash floods and landslides.
In other words, this storm not only threatens the sea and plains but is also very dangerous for the entire mountainous area.
In terms of danger, storm No. 5 is considered not much less dangerous than storm Yagi 2024 in terms of strong winds, and at least equal to or even stronger than storm No. 10 in 2017, which caused heavy damage in the Ha Tinh area.
Therefore, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has raised the warning to level 4 - a very high level. People and local authorities need to be urgent and resolute in responding and evacuating when required and absolutely not subjective.
It is forecasted that in the next 12-24 hours, storm No. 5 will move mainly in the west-northwest direction, about 20 km/h, the intensity may increase to level 14. At around noon and afternoon tomorrow (August 25), the storm is likely to make landfall in the provinces from Thanh Hoa to Bac Quang Binh (the center of the storm is in Nghe An Ha Tinh area).
