Hanoi (VNA) - The Standing Office of the National Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control and the Office of the National Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue on May 31 sent an official dispatch to authorities from the northern province of Quang Ninh province to the central province of Ha Tinh, requesting them to monitor storm Maliksi and prepare response measures.

The dispatch was also sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Information and Communication, the Ministry of Transport, the Vietnam News Agency, the Vietnam Television and the Voice of Vietnam.

A tropical depression in the northern part of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa has strengthened into storm Maliksi, the first storm to hit Vietnam this year, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

By 1pm on May 31, the centre of the storm was about 20.7 degrees North latitude and 111.8 degrees East longitude with winds near its eye reaching between 62km and 74km per hour. In the next 12 hours, Maliksi will move north-northeast at a speed of about 10km per hour with wind speeds of 62-74km per hour.

To proactively respond to the storm, the steering committees for natural disaster prevention and search and rescue of provinces and cities as well as the aforementioned ministries and agencies were requested to closely monitor the developments of the storm, strictly manage offshore vessels, notify owners and captains of vessels operating at sea about the storm’s location and movement so they could proactively avoid or evacuate from dangerous areas.

The Vietnam News Agency, the Vietnam Television, the Voice of Vietnam and mass media agencies from central to local levels were asked to increase information about the developments of the storm.

Ministries, agencies and localities were asked to prepare forces and equipment for rescue in case of need, arrange staff on-duty and regularly report to the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee on Prevention and Control and the Office of the National Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue./.