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17-06-2023
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Roofs have been blown off houses and trees and electric poles uprooted, leaving thousands without power as a severe cyclone makes landfall and heavy rains lash both the Indian and Pakistani coasts.
At least two people died in India’s western state of Gujarat after being swept away by floods just before the cyclone hit, officials said on Friday.
More than 180,000 people were evacuated in India and Pakistan in the last few days as authorities braced for the cyclone, named Biparjoy, which means “disaster” or “calamity” in the Bengali language.
It made landfall late on Thursday near Jakhau, a port in Gujarat that is close to the border with Pakistan, weather officials said.
Biparjoy weakened to a cyclonic storm from a severe cyclonic storm on Friday morning, India’s Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its latest bulletin, with speeds going down from 105kph (65.24mph) to 85kph (52.82mph). Wind speeds are likely to reduce further by the afternoon, the bulletin said.
Two men, both shepherds, died while trying to rescue their cattle from being swept away during heavy rains and floods in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district on Thursday evening, the cyclone control room said.
Power was disrupted at many places in the Kutch district of Gujarat because of strong winds, said Amit Arora, a top district official overseeing rescue operations.
India’s weather department warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Gujarat and the neighboring state of Rajasthan through Friday.
Neighbouring Pakistan’s disaster management authority on Friday said the cyclone is losing its intensity.
“It is forecasted to further weaken into a cyclonic storm and subsequently into a depression by (Friday) evening,” the authority said in a statement.
