Pabuk is moving westwards (Source: National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting)

At a meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday to seek measures to cope with Pabuk, the first storm of 2019, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who is also head of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, urged southern provinces to call ships to take shelter and ensure people’s safety. Storm Pabuk is unlikely to hit Vietnam’s mainland, but will sweep through Vietnam’s southern fishing ground, where 76,000 ships with 400,000 fishermen operate regularly.