At 7:40 a.m. Sunday, the storm is 170 km (106 miles) from Binh Dinh Province and 240 km from Quang Nam Province with winds of 60 to 75 kilometers per hour, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

The center said the storm would make landfall from Quang Nam to Binh Dinh around 4 p.m. Sunday with winds gusting at 75 kph before weaking into a tropical depression and moving to Laos.

Weather forecasting centers in Japan, Hong Kong suggested the similar developments, saying the storm would land within today in central Vietnam with winds of around 65 kph.

Heavy rain is expected in central Vietnam until Tuesday, with total rainfall of up to 500-700 mm or higher in localities from Thua Thien-Hue to Quang Nam, up to 600 mm in Quang Tri and Quang Ngai, up to 500 mm in Quang Binh, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen, and up to 300 mm in southern areas of Ha Tinh, and northern parts of the Central Highlands. Rainfall of 180 mm a day is considered heavy.

In the next ten days, the central region should be prepared for two more tropical depressions that would bring more rains resulted in more flooding, meteorologists said.

Since Tuesday, the entire central region and some Central Highlands provinces have been hit by torrential rains triggered by a cold spell combined with tropical turbulence, causing serious flooding,
leaving houses almost four meters under water
in some areas, killing at least eight, causing seven missing and 20000 to evacuate from their homes.

Linfa has made the sixth storm in enter the East Sea, known internationally as the South China Sea, so far this year.

Storm Noul, the fifth tropical storm this year in the East Sea, killed six people in Vietnam last month.

Until the end of this year, four-six tropical depressions or storms would develop in the East Sea and at least two would make landfall in Vietnam, according to weather forecasts.

Natural disasters, mostly floods and landslides triggered by storms, killed 132 people and injured 207 others in Vietnam last year.