Vietnam closed schools, airports, and evacuated thousands of people as it braced for powerful Typhoon Kajiki to make landfall Monday, threatening the country’s northeast with destructive winds and storm surges.

The typhoon downed trees and soaked China’s southern Hainan island on Sunday before moving over the Gulf of Tonkin overnight with sustained wind speeds of 166 kph (103 mph), according to Vietnam’s national weather forecast agency, the equivalent to a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane.

More than 40,000 people had been evacuated in low-lying coastal communities as of Monday morning, according to the state-run VN Express. Residents have been told not to leave their homes between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time, the state Vietnamese News Agency (VNA) reported.

Kajiki is the fifth typho

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