Many pre-schools and primary schools in Ho Chi Minh City have closed for safety reasons as a tropical storm is forecast to strike southern provinces this afternoon or evening. The city Education and Training Department also asked all schools to close from 4 pm today.

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This morning many schools in Districts 2 and 9, Thu Duc District and other districts issued notices to ask parents to take their children home.

In case parents cannot pick up their kids soon, then schools will take care of their children.

Le Thi Minh Loan, head of the education department of District 9, said, “We have advised parents that they should not pick up their children at 3 or 4 pm today, but should take kids home earlier for safety reasons.”

Loan also said schools have prepared plans to take care of their students at school. “Schools will continue to close tomorrow if the bad weather condition continues. In case it does not rain tomorrow, the school will operate normally.”  

In many other districts, parents have also been informed about picking up their children after the morning class ends.

This morning, the HCMC Department of Education and Training sent messages to educational departments in districts and headmasters of schools asking them to take measures to cope with the coming storm. 

In case the storm hits the city, no students are allowed to leave school, the department said, adding that students are banned from using waterway transport means from now until the storm no longer affects the city. 

All activities for students in coastal Can Gio District are also banned, the department said.

This afternoon the department issued an urgent message asking all schools, from preshools to universities, and alll other educational facilities to take measures to cope with the coming storm.

The department requests that all these schools stop teaching and study activities from 4 pm pending a further notice.

In southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, one of the localities forcast to be hit by the storm, the authorities have ordered schools to close from this afternoon for safety reasons.

According to a report from the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Center, a tropical depression that is moving fast in the East Sea towards southern Vietnam has upgraded into a storm and will hit there in the afternoon or evening. At 10 am today, the storm was centered about 200 km off the region from Khanh Hoa to Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provinces, with winds near the eye reaching 61 kph, and gusts of 62-88 kph. The storm is moving mainly west at 25-30 kph and may hit the above region at 3-4 pm today or later, at 7-8 pm.