Vietnam's First Storm Of Year Skirts Central Coast
Date: 17-Apr-08
Country: VIETNAM
The Agriculture Ministry said in a report that the storm would move northeast in the next 48 hours and was forecast to stay out at sea about 210 km (130 miles) from the coast of the central provinces of Quang Ngai and Khanh Hoa.
A provincial official in the main coffee-growing region of Daklak in central Vietnam said the storm, named Neoguri, was unlikely to affect Daklak at all.
"The storm is likely to gain strength in the next 24 hours," the national meteorology centre said on Wednesday.
British-based storm forecast Web site www.tropicalstormrisk.com says Neoguri is likely to strengthen to a category two typhoon over the next 24 hours and head towards China's Hainan island.
The national weather centre said the storm would affect the central region, which is not the main rice growing area.
It urged fishing vessels from going out to sea and officials were also warning the nearly 9,000 fishermen working near the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam; Editing by Grant McCool and David Fogarty)
