Residents have been reinforcing their homes, stockpiling food and relocating to safe areas ahead of Storm Vamco, set to make landfall in central Vietnam on Sunday. 

Le Van Doan, 51, in Ha Tinh Province suffered some of the most severe damage caused by the tornado on October 29. His house, built 10 years ago, had its roof blown away while home appliances were damaged, and auxiliary structures collapsed. Doan hired masons to reinforce his home on Sunday to mitigate damage caused by Storm Vamco.

"I borrowed more than VND30 million ($1,300) to repair my house after the tornado. I hope the upcoming storm would not cause damage, otherwise my family would not have money to fix it," he said.

Vamco is the 13th storm to hit Vietnam this year. At 4 p.m. Saturday, the storm lay around 170 km to the east of coastal Da Nang City and Thua Thien-Hue Province with winds of up to 135 kph and is forecast to make landfall between Ha Tinh and Quang Nam provinces with winds of 100 kph Sunday morning.

A man in Quang Tri Province loads sand bags onto his roof in preparation for the incoming storm.

Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Da Nang, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh, home to many of the country’s most beautiful beaches like My Khe, Lang Co and An Bang, have closed off access to the sea and banned boats from going out from Friday while airports Da Nang in the eponymous city, Chu Lai in Quang Nam, Phu Bai in Thua Thien-Hue, Dong Hoi in Quang Binh, and Vinh in Nghe An were shut as a precaution.

Border guards in Quang Tri's Trieu Phong District dismantle the roof of Ha Thi Bao Thi's house to ensure safety. All members from her household have been relocated to a safer area of shelter.

Six localities including Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai planned to evacuate 460,000 residents in low-lying areas while those facing a high risk of landslides have been evacuated to places of safety.

Nguyen Van Dan, a local official in Phu Vang District, said Thua Thien-Hue had moved 153 families from dangerous areas to safety while fishing boats have been anchored near the shore to avoid the storm.

Hue Monuments Conservation Center inside Hue Imperial Citadel, a popular tourist destination in Vietnam, has been reinforced with iron piles. Previously, Storm Noul, the fifth to hit the country this year and that made landfall in central Vietnam last September, had damaged a part of Thai Hoa Palace's tile roof.

A worker repairs the grid system in Phu Thuan Commune, Phu Vang District of Hue.

Thua Thien-Hue, home to the popular tourist town Hue, allowed students to stay home from Saturday and requested residents to not go out from Saturday afternoon. The whole province so far has evacuated nearly 16,000 families from dangerous localities.

In Da Nang, many people have poured into markets and supermarkets to buy food.

"The government has warned us not to leave the house from this afternoon, so we stockpile food," said Hoa, a resident of Thanh Khe District.

For fear of power outages as the storm makes landfall, people do not buy too much meat and fish. Many instead choose eggs and noodles.

"I bought a mini gas stove, in case of power outage," said Lan, 32, a resident of Hoang Hoa Tham Street.

Many ATMs along a Da Nang street have been reinforced to prevent them from being blown away by strong winds. Many people have flocked to withdraw money before the ATMs were closed.

In Quang Nam, an old woman in Tam Dao Commune in Nui Thanh District is carried to safety by border guards.

The whole commune evacuated 300 families to a secondary school and two shelter houses," said Nguyen Tan Hung, vice chairman of Tam Hai.

Workers use forklifts and chainsaws to trim tree branches on Tran Dai Nghia Street of Quang Nam.

The central region has been bombarded by storms, landslides and floods since last month that left at least 235 killed or missing.