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16-06-2023
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI/ KARACHI: Howling gales and crashing waves are pounding the coastline of India and Pakistan, hours before powerful Cyclone Biparjoy makes landfall.
The storm, classified as a very severe cyclone, is expected to hit the area between Keti Bandar port in Sindh province’s Thatta district in southern Pakistan and Kutch district in western India’s Gujarat state.
Tens of thousands of people in both countries have been moved to safer areas as heavy rains pound the region.
Authorities on Thursday said the storm had lost some of its intensity and was expected to have a maximum sustained wind speed of between 115kph and 125kph (71mph to 78mph).
Pakistan Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman says Karachi, a port city of 20 million people, was not under immediate threat.
Rehman said emergency measures were being taken to deal with winds and rain that were expected to batter the economic hub.
“There will be voluntary evacuations carrying on in the city of Karachi, which is, sort of, not directly in the eye of the storm like the coastal areas … but it is certainly going to feel the brunt of high intensity, high-velocity winds, as well as rainfall,” Rehman said.
Jayantha Bhai, a 35-year-old shopkeeper in the beach town of Mandvi in India’s Gujarat state, says he is afraid for his family’s safety.
“This is the first time I’ve experienced a cyclone,” Bhai, a father of three boys aged between eight and 15, told media, adding that he planned to wait out the cyclone in his small concrete home behind the shop.
“This is nature, we can’t fight with it,” he said, as driving rain lashed his home.
Khair Muhammed, a 46-year-old fisherman, has been staying for four days at a relief camp set up by the Sindh government in Golarchi, a city 170km (105 miles) north of Keti Bandar.
“We are given shelter in a small school that can accommodate 100 people. Life is quite difficult here,” Muhammed, who is there with his wife and eight children, told media.
“The government told us we cannot go back to our village before June 18, so all day, we just sit here, waiting and hoping the cyclone does not destroy our boats,” he said.
“We just need to spend two, three more days here, and then I hope to go back to sea. If you cannot catch a fish, how can you earn any money?”
