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At 4 p.m., the eye of the tropical depression was near the coast from Thai Binh to Nghe An provinces with maximum wind speeds of 60 kph, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
In the next nine hours, the storm is expected to move west at a speed of 10-15 kph and hit inland provinces from Thai Binh to Nghe An before weakening further into a low pressure zone over Laos early on Thursday, with wind speed of only 40 kph.
Due to the impacts of the storm, northern and north-central Vietnam were battered by heavy rains between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday, with Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, and Thanh Hoa receiving rainfall ranging from 53 to 60 mm.
The northern delta and provinces like Hoa Binh, Son La, Phu Tho, and Yen Bai, along with Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh on the north-central coast are likely to get rainfall of up to 400 mm a day from Wednesday to Friday. Rainfall of 180 mm a day is considered heavy.
Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, and Ha Tinh have ordered the evacuation of fishing boats, fish cages and watch towers to safer areas and banned vessels from going out to sea.
The provinces as well as the northern port city Hai Phong and Quang Ninh Province, home to world famous Ha Long Bay, Nam Dinh, and Ninh Binh have closed all beaches.
Localities like Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, and Nghe An have evacuated over 150,000 residents from storm-hit areas.
Nangka, formed on Monday, is the seventh storm to form over the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, this year.
The sixth, Storm Linfa, made landfall last Sunday morning, bringing heavy rains that intensified days of flooding in central Vietnam. At least 36 people have been confirmed dead and 12 others missing.
Natural disasters, mostly floods and landslides triggered by storms, killed 132 people and injured 207 last year.
