KARACHI: While the evacuations began after Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said Cyclone Biparjoy came roughly 600 kilometres within the range of Karachi on Monday, the coastal areas of Sindh started to receive impact of the storm.
“The Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS) ‘Biparjoy’ over east-central Arabian Sea has moved further northward during last 12 hours and now lies near Latitude 19.5°N & Longitude 67.7°E at a distance of about 600km south of Karachi, 580km south of Thatta and 710km southeast of Ormara,” read the alert issued this morning.
“Seawater has started to inundate the coastal areas of Ormara and Gwadar while the Cyclone Biparjoy is 600 kilometers away,” said a tweet carrying videos of string tides hitting the coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan.
The weather service elaborated that maximum sustained surface winds are 160-180km/h and are gusting up to 200km/h around the storm’s centre with “sea conditions being phenomenal with maximum wave height 35-40 feet”.
“The favourable environmental conditions (sea surface temperature of 30-31°C, low vertical wind shear & upper-level divergence) are supporting the system to maintain its severity.
“Under the existing upper-level steering winds, the ESCS Biparjoy is most likely to track further Northward until June 14 morning, then recurve Northeastward and cross between Keti Bandar (Southeast Sindh) and Indian Gujarat coast on June 15 afternoon as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS).
“PMD’s cyclone warning centre, Karachi is continuously monitoring the system and will issue update accordingly,” it added.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in a tweet urged all citizens to stay alert adding that evolving situations and the impact of the cyclone “will only be certain with further development of the weather system”,
The Met department advised fisherfolk to not venture into the open sea “till the system is over by June 17 as the Arabian Sea conditions may get very rough/high accompanied with high tides along the coast”.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has urged citizens to stay away from shorelines as the cyclone — heading towards the coastal areas of Pakistan and India — was likely to intensify during the next 24 hours.
“The cyclone is expected to impact southern and south-eastern parts of Sindh on June 13,” it tweeted.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from villages near the coast in view of the possibility of the cyclone hitting Keti Bandar.
The Sindh government has estimated that about 60,000 people in Sindh’s coastal districts, including Badin, Sujawal and Thatta.
The district administration along with law enforcement agencies reached Keti Bander and Gorabari.
The local residents told media that fear prevails among them as Cyclone Biparjoy approached the coast.
“We are leaving our homes to safer places,” said Shakeel Memon, a resident of Keti Bander. “We do not have any choice to live here,” he said quoting the authorities that evacuation is a ‘must’.
Memon said that the majority of the residents will have to stay in nearby areas like Bhagan, some 35km from Keti Bander. He said that the district government set up camps in Bhagan to accommodate the displaced families.
Another resident said that he was planning to move to other cities like Gharo or Karachi. “It is not easy to live in a camp in this situation,” he commented.
On the other hand, residents were being shifted to living in creeks, especially in Gorabari.
“Some of the families have already left,” Memon said. He said that the situation was critical for them. “It seems that the cyclone is about to hit this area and I don’t know what will be there when we come back,” he said.
