Cyclone Biparjoy less than 400kms away from Karachi as Sindh braces for heavy rains

The Cyclone Biparjoy is now less than 400 kms away from Karachi and the system is expected to bring dust storms, thunderstorms and heavy to extreme rainfall in lower Sindh.

In a tweet earlier on Tuesday, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said the cyclone weakened from ‘‘extreme’’ to a ‘‘Very Severe Cyclonic Storm’’ with sustained windspeed of approximately 140-150 km/h.

‘‘It’s an evolving situation and impact will only be certain with further development of system,’’ NDMA said.

Expert lays out safety guidelines as Cyclone Biparjoy nears Pakistan

As per the latest forecast, Biparjoy is expected to maintain a northward trajectory until the morning of Wednesday and then it is likely to recurve eastward and make a landfall between Keti Bandar, southeast Sindh Coastline and the Indian Gujarat Coastline in the afternoon of Thursday.

The areas likely to be affected include Thatta, Badin, Sajawal, Tharparkar, Karachi, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Hyderabad, Ormara, Tando Allah Yar Khan and Tando Mohammad Khan.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that with its probable approach to the southeast Sindh coast, widespread wind-dust/thunderstorm rain can be expected, with some very heavy/extremely heavy falls accompanied with squally winds of 80-100Km/hour gusting 120km/hour likely in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparker, Mirpurkhas & Umerkot districts during 13-17 June.

In a presser on Tuesday, Climate Minister Sherry Rehman said high-velocity winds and rains were likely to cause damage even if Biparjoy did not hit Pakistan’s coastline.

She further said that warnings had been issued for fishermen while Pakistan Navy and maritime authorities had removed assets from the sea.

Rehman added that the areas declared vulnerable were the same that were impacted during the 2022 floods. She expressed fear that the cyclone may halt relief and rebuilding work underway.

Earlier, in a tweet, she urged citizens to take the advisories issued by authorities seriously.

’’Without panicking, people need to take PDMA Sindh and PDMA Balochistan advisories seriously for the coastal areas,“ she tweeted.

She also shared a list of helplines citizens could reach out to.

‘Power plants may go offline’

As per Radio Pakistan Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir said that some power plants “may go offline during the cyclone”.

“It is dangerous to operate power plants during high-velocity winds,” he said during a ceremony in Islamabad.

The minister said that high winds were expected in the south-eastern parts of Pakistan due to Biparjoy, adding that the storm was also preventing liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships from docking at the port.

On Monday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had said that “more than 80,000 people are at risk” of being affected by the cyclone and announced evacuations across the province. He also sought help from the armed forces.

He added that people would be forced to evacuate. Moreover, on Monday, Karachi’s Seaview Road was closed to traffic to prevent people from heading out into the open sea.

CM Sindh for expediting contingency measures

“We are taking all-out measures to shift the people to secure areas and removing loose installations like billboards, sign boards, and such other weak structures to avoid any untoward incident,” he said.

Situation in India

Meanwhile, in neighbouring India, four boys drowned in rough seas off the western Indian financial hub of Mumbai on Tuesday, two days before a cyclone is expected to make landfall.

“Four boys drowned at Juhu beach on Monday evening. So far, we have found the bodies of two, and the search is still ongoing to locate the remaining two,” said a police official in Mumbai, south of Gujarat.

High waves in the Arabian Sea, accompanied by heavy rains and gusting winds pounded Gujarat’s coastal areas, uprooting trees and resulting in a wall collapse that killed three people in Kutch and Rajkot districts, authorities said.

Eight districts in coastal Gujarat are expected to be affected, the state government said. Fishing has been suspended until Friday and schools have declared holidays.

Gujarat is home to many offshore oil installations and major ports in the country and most have been forced to suspend operations.

A 1998 cyclone killed at least 4,000 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in Gujarat.

Relief Commissioner Alok Kumar Pandey said more than 20,500 people have been evacuated from coastal districts and the evacuation was expected to be completed by Tuesday evening.

Two of India’s largest ports, Kandla and Mundra, have suspended operations, the state government said. Other ports, including Bedi, Navlakhi, Porbandar, Okha, Pipavav and Bhavnagar, have also closed due to the cyclone, according to shipping sources.

Reliance Industries, which operates the world’s largest refining complex in Gujarat’s Jamnagar, declared a force majeure, suspending exports of diesel and other oil products from Gujarat’s Sikka port, traders said.

The Adani conglomerate’s ports business, Adani Ports said it suspended vessel operations on Monday at Mundra, India’s biggest commercial port that has the country’s largest coal import terminal, and also at Tuna port near Kandla.

The Indian Coast Guard said it evacuated 50 personnel from a jack-up oil rig off Gujarat’s coast named Key Singapore, which is owned by Dubai-based Shelf Drilling and currently working for Cairn Oil & Gas (Vedanta Ltd.), according to Shelf Drilling’s website.