Powerful Typhoon Kajiki Slams Vietnam, Leaves One Dead and Thousands Evacuated in Central Provinces
Tropical Storm Kajiki claimed at least one life in Vietnam after making landfall as a powerful typhoon on Monday, resulting in dangerous winds and forcing authorities to evacuate over 40,000 residents across the central provinces.
In Ha Tinh province alone, one fatality was reported along with 144 flooded homes and 621 damaged roofs, according to Viet Nam News, citing the Directorate of Dikes and Disaster Prevention. Eight additional individuals were injured in Quang Tri and Ha Tinh.
Kajiki struck Vietnam’s Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces around 3 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) with wind speeds of 133 kph (82 mph), as per Vietnam’s national weather forecast agency. Since then, it has weakened into a tropical storm.
The storm wreaked havoc by tearing through properties, uprooting trees, and knocking down lampposts across affected regions, according to state media reports. The provinces lie approximately 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of Hanoi. Prior to the arrival of Kajiki – the fifth named storm to hit Vietnam this year – residents and business owners along the coast had boarded up windows and stacked sandbags outside homes, restaurants, and hotels.
Schools were closed, two provincial airports shut down, and mass evacuations were organized from coastal provinces as Kajiki approached Southeast Asia. Eyewitnesses described surging waves flooding streets in coastal regions, with roofs collapsing and homes becoming submerged, according to Reuters.
Areas in Ha Tinh experienced power outages and unstable phone networks due to heavy rain that forced residents to seek shelter, as per state media reports. The storm also triggered tidal surges, causing flooding in coastal areas of Thanh Hoa province.
As of Monday evening, the storm was moving slowly and gradually weakening, but strong winds remained a risk, according to an update from Vietnam’s weather forecast agency. Earlier forecasts predicted Kajiki would drop to tropical depression strength by early Tuesday.
Authorities in central provinces activated emergency measures on Sunday, including evacuation plans for around 587,000 people from Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Hue, and Danang provinces. Fishing vessels were banned from leaving shore, and dams and flood walls were secured, according to VNA.
More than 300,000 military personnel were mobilized with the Navy, Coast Guard, and Air Force on standby for rescue operations, as reported by the news agency.
The storm is anticipated to move inland towards Laos and Thailand, according to China’s Meteorological Center, increasing the risk of flash flooding and mudslides. Between 200-400 millimeters of rain is forecast for certain regions in Vietnam, with some isolated areas expected to receive over 600 mm.
Kajiki previously brushed past the southern coast of China’s Hainan island and parts of Guangdong province Sunday evening. As a result, the city of Sanya on Hainan island closed tourist attractions, shuttered businesses, and suspended public transport.
Sanya downgraded its typhoon alert on Monday morning but cautioned that heavy rain and storms in southern Hainan were expected to continue, as reported by Reuters.
Scientists have long expressed concerns that the climate crisis – which developed nations are historically more responsible for – has intensified the scale and power of regional storms, with countries in the Global South bearing the brunt of the impact.
“It’s alarming to see our predictions from just last year already becoming a reality,” Benjamin Horton, a professor of earth science at City University, Hong Kong, told the Associated Press. “We are no longer predicting the future — we are living it.”