Typhoon Tembin forces Vietnam to evacuate 650,000

Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Dec 25  : Vietnamese authorities on Monday evacuated about some 650,000 people ahead of the arrival of Tembin, the storm that left 200 dead and missing in the Philippines and that has intensified to typhoon on its path through the South China Sea.

The Vietnamese meteorological service predicts that Typhoon Tembin, which on Monday morning was more than 300 km away from the Con Dao Island and had sustained winds of 135 kmph, would enter the south of Vietnam on Monday night, Efe reported.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered local authorities to mobilize soldiers, police and volunteers to evacuate residents in areas at risk of floods and landslides.

The evacuation also includes people residing in huts and boats in the Mekong Delta, through which Typhoon Tembin will enter.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the material damage is inevitable, but the loss of lives due to the delay in the evacuation of civilians will not happen, according to the local media VNExpress.

Meanwhile, authorities in the Philippines are continuing the search and rescue effort for those affected by Tembin, which entered the south of that country on Friday and left on Sunday a remnant of destruction, with more than 200 dead and missing and almost 550,000 affected.

The provinces of Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte, both in Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines and where the state of calamity has been declared in several provinces, are the most affected by this storm.

Emergency services, reinforced with military, police and volunteers, are working in the search for survivors, the rescue of people trapped by floods and landslides and in the reopening of roads and restoration of telecommunications and electricity.

At least 97,583 Filipinos living in the south of the country spent Christmas in one of the 261 evacuation centres, while another 84,794 people receive government assistance outside these centres, according to data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council.