MANDVI, India: Authorities in India’s western state of Gujarat evacuated more than 150,000 people from vulnerable coastal areas in the path of Cyclone Biparjoy, set to whirl in from the Arabian Sea and make landfall by Thursday (Jun 15) night.
Biparjoy, which means “disaster” or “calamity” in the Bengali language, was centred 140km off Jakhau port in India’s western state of Gujarat and 230km off Pakistan’s southern port of Karachi, weather officials said.
“We are expecting the cyclone to make landfall during the evening, around 8 or 8.30pm,” said Manorama Mohanty, the Gujarat director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which warned the process could last until midnight.
It added that the cyclone could cause tidal waves in the Arabian Sea as high as 2m to 3m that could inundate low-lying coastal areas in both countries.
Classified as a category one storm, the least severe on a scale of one to five, Biparjoy appeared to have lost some of its intensity.
It was expected to have a maximum sustained wind speed of 115kph to 125kph gusting up to 140kph, down from Wednesday’s estimate of 150kph.
Close to 95,000 people have been evacuated from eight coastal districts in Gujarat likely to be affected by the cyclone and moved to shelters, the state government said.
Authorities in Pakistan said about 62,000 people had been evacuated from high-risk areas by Wednesday evening.
Makeshift relief quarters were set up in school auditoriums and other government buildings to shelter the displaced in both countries.
As the storm neared land, the windspeed rose around Jakhau, said Amit Arora, a revenue official in the region of Kutch, where the cyclone is likely to hit land, and more than 50,000 people have been evacuated.
Source: CNA
