In the latest report about storm Haiyan that slashed Quang Ninh, the northern provincial authorities said the storm’s eye had touched land two hours earlier than forecast by the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. Three people have gone missing.

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Specifically, the storm began to affect the province at 10 pm November 10 and the storm’s wind reached the strongest level at 0-2 am today, with winds measuring 89-117 kph and gusts of 149 kph in Ha Long City and Co To Island.

However, several hours after the storm’s landfall, the Center issued a forecast (at 3:30am) that the storm’s eye would hit the province from 3-5 am Monday.

In this forecast, the center claimed that the eye just came near the coast and forecast that landfall would occur in 1-2 hours later, despite the storm having already landed.

By that time, the strongest winds of the storm had already swept through Ha Long, and Cam Pha. The wind later became weakened. 

Tuoi Tre reporters were present at that time and found that provincial government officials were confused, but based on the center’s forecast, the provincial People’s Committee informed to its localities that the storm had yet to land and the strongest wind would come in 1-2 hours. But later, no strong winds came and it was not until 6 am this morning that the center announced that the storm’s center had entered Quang Ninh.Three missing After Haiyan left Quang Ninh at noon today, local authorities reported that three people had gone missing during the storm.  The victims were on board a cargo ship with a crew of four and sank during the storm off Cam Pha earlier morning. Rescuers could save only one of them, authorities said. Efforts to search for the three others are underway. The storm knocked down 18 houses, blew roofs off 525 houses, sank 16 ships, collapsed two antenna towers and ruined 179 hectares of crops. Numerous trees were uprooted during the storm. For now, the storm has made landfall in China’s southern Guang Xi Province and is predicted to weaken into a tropical depression.