ACTING Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai ordered governors nationwide including Bangkok to monitor intensifying Typhoon Kajiki and prepare to provide assistance to the public 24 hours a day, Naewna newspaper said this afternoon (Aug. 24).
He also told the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to set up a war room in monitoring Kajiki with the governors to continuously coordinate with the officials manning it.
If the situation becomes more severe the governors and district chiefs were told to immediately implement an emergency response plan that has already been reviewed and reheared.
Backpirch Weather, which provide advanced analysis and live coverage of tropical cyclones worldwide, said this afternoon that a very concerning situation is developing in the South China Sea as Category 1 Typhoon Kajiki, now a 120 kph (75 mph) storm, looks to be embarking on a phase of rapid intensification. Icy bursts of convection are popping off around an eye that is suddenly clearing through the cloud deck. With the core forecast to stay south of Hainan, China, Kajiki may have no terrestrial obstacles to becoming a dangerously powerful Category 2+ Typhoon upon landfall in Vietnam tomorrow.
Meanwhile Vietnam plans to evacuate more than half a million people and has ordered boats to stay ashore, while the southern Chinese city of Sanya closed businesses and public transport on Sunday as the two countries braced for an intensifying Typhoon Kajiki, according to a Reuters report published by Yahoo!News
The storm could make landfall along the southern coast of China’s southern island province of Hainan from Sunday afternoon to evening, or skirt the southern coastline before heading toward Vietnam, China’s National Meteorological Centre said.
The storm, packing winds of up to 149 kph (93 mph), was about 500 km (300 miles) off Vietnam’s central coast at 0600 GMT, moving west at 20 kph, according to Vietnam’s national weather forecast agency.
It is likely to strengthen with wind speeds as high as 170 kph (110 mph), China’s weather forecaster said.
Authorities in Vietnam plan to evacuate more than 586,000 people from the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Hue and Danang, where the typhoon is forecast to make landfall early on Monday, state media reported.
Seven coastal provinces in the Southeast Asian nation banned boats from leaving shore early on Sunday, Tien Phong newspaper reported.
Flag carrier Vietnam Airlines cancelled at least 22 flights to and from central cities on Sunday and Monday. Vietjet Aviation said it was cancelling or delaying flights but did not provide details.
China’s Sanya, renowned for seafront resorts and sandy beaches, closed tourist attractions, shuttered businesses and suspended public transport.
‘Worst-Case Scenarios’
China’s weather agency forecast heavy rainfall and strong winds in Hainan and nearby Guangdong province and Guangxi region, with areas in Hainan set to receive as much as 400 mm (1.7 inches) of precipitation.
Sanya issued a red typhoon alert on Sunday morning – the highest in China’s colour-coded warning system – and raised its emergency response to the most severe level, according to posts on the local government’s WeChat account.
At 4 p.m. today the Thai Meteorological Department said Kajiki is now around 450 kms east of Vinh, Vietnam, with maximum sustained winds of about 150 km/hr and is moving in a west-northwesterly direction at 20 km/hr.
The typhoon is forecast to make landfall over upper Vietnam then downgrade to tropical storm by tomorrow (Aug. 25). Once it reaches Thailand’s Nan province on Tuesday (Aug. 26) it will likely further downgrade to active low-pressure cell.
From today to Tuesday (Aug. 24-26) there will be heavy to very heavy rain with strong winds in the upper Northeast then from Tuesday to Thursday (Aug. 25-27) across the North.
However people throughout the country should brace for heavy downpours and strong winds that may lead to flash floods and overflows especially along the waterways near foothills and lowlands.
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Top and Front Page: A satellite image of Typhoon Kajiki. Credit: Weather Underground
Watch Backpirch Weather’s video of Typhoon Kajiki shared on X.com
https://x.com/i/status/1959470113775661453
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