Vietnam braces for Typhoon Kajiki: Tens of thousands evacuated, airports closed

Tens of thousands of residents were being evacuated from coastal Vietnam on Monday, as Typhoon Kajiki barrelled towards landfall expected to lash the country’s central belt with gales of around 160 kmh.

The typhoon – the fifth to affect Vietnam this year – is currently at sea, roiling the Gulf of Tonkin with waves of up to 9.5 metres (31 feet).

More than 325,500 residents in five coastal provinces have been slated for evacuation to schools and public buildings converted into temporary shelters, authorities said.

The waterfront city of Vinh was deluged overnight, its streets largely deserted by morning with most shops and restaurants closed as residents and business-owners sandbagged their property entrances.

By dawn nearly 30,000 people had been evacuated from the region, as 16,000 military personnel were mobilised.

Two domestic airports were shut and all fishing ships in the typhoon’s path have been called back to harbour.

“I have never heard of a typhoon of this big scale coming to our city,” said 66-year-old Le Manh Tung at a Vinh indoor sports stadium, where evacuated families dined on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.

“I am a bit scared, but then we have to accept it because it’s nature – we cannot do anything,” he told AFP, among only a few dozen people camped out at the evacuation site on Monday morning.

The typhoon is expected to make landfall around 1:00 pm (0600 GMT) with winds of 157 kilometres per hour (98 miles per hour), Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.

– ‘Never this big’ –

Scientists say human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns that can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.

“Normally we get storms and flooding, but never this big,” said 52-year-old evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan.

The typhoon’s power is due to dramatically dissipate after it makes landfall.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said conditions suggested “an approaching weakening trend as the system approaches the continental shelf of the Gulf of Tonkin where there is less ocean heat content”.

Over a dozen domestic Vietnamese flights were cancelled on Sunday, while China’s tropical resort of Hainan evacuated around 20,000 residents as the typhoon passed its south.

The island’s main city, Sanya, closed scenic areas and halted business operations.

In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.

Economic losses have been estimated at more than $21 million.

Vietnam suffered $3.3 billion in economic losses last September as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which swept across the country’s north and caused hundreds of fatalities.