Th7
An area on Hanoi outskirts are submerged due to torrential rains triggered by a tropical storm over the weekend. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy
A tropical depression off China’s Leizhou Peninsula, is set to cause heavy downpours in Vietnam’s northern highlands.
According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the depression is expected to travel northwestward at 10 to 15 kilometers per hour on Tuesday night before weakening into a low pressure zone at the Vietnam-China border area.
This is expected to trigger strong winds and heavy downpours in the northeastern provinces of Quang Ninh, Lang Son and Bac Giang.
The northern mountainous provinces have been warned that torrential rains will continue battering the region with rainfall of 50 to 150 millimeters on Wednesday and Thursday.
Five provinces – Cao Bang, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Yen Bai – are projected to be the hardest hit and threatened by flash floods and landslides even as the area is yet to recover from similar phenomena triggered by a tropical storm.
Hanoi can also expect rainfall of up to 50 millimeters from Tuesday night until the end of Thursday, which could inundate some parts of the capital city, weather experts said.
They predicted that heavy downpours will continue to lash the northern part of the country until early August due to the influence of a tropical convergence zone.
Vietnam was struck by a record-breaking number of 16 tropical storms in 2017, leaving 389 people dead or missing and 668 others injured, mostly in northern and central regions. The General Statistics Office estimated damage at VND60 trillion ($2.64 billion), 1.5 times the previous year’s figure.
