Khanh Hoa braces for new storm, as all 110k students told to stay home

Satellite image of a tropical depression at sea, moving west towards central Vietnam regions. Photo courtesy of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting

Khanh Hoa is allowing over 110,000 students to take two days off from school starting Tuesday as a tropical depression is expected to become a storm and make landfall soon.

Vo Hoan Hai, director of the provincial Department of Education and Training, signed a document Monday for students of secondary and high schools to study online starting Tuesday. Primary schools and kindergartens have not reopened as a Covid-19 precaution measure.

Schools and local authorities in the central coastal province have been requested to closely monitor the situation while reinforcing infrastructure and moving documents, books, and equipment to safe areas.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, the center of the tropical depression was around 385 km from Khanh Hoa and 370 km from Ninh Thuan with a maximum wind speed of 50 kph, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Within the next three hours, the tropical depression would move west-northwest at around 10-15 kph, the center said.

Heavy rains over the past two days have already inundated several provinces in the central region like Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai, triggering floods and landslides.

Rainfall in Quang Ngai from October 22 to October 24 reached a record high of 498 – 850 mm, flooding 11,000 homes, killing at least one person, and leaving three others missing.