KARACHI: Panic grips coastal area residents amid cyclone warning
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, June 25: Panic gripped the citizens of the coastal city following a cyclone alert from the Met Office on Monday evening.
Although no evacuation advisory was issued by the city district administration, residents of the localities of Clifton and Defence Housing Authority vacated their houses and moved to areas away from the seaside.
According to the Met Office, the cyclone ‘Yemyin’ (03B) in the Arabian Sea is gaining intensity but is unlikely to hit the country’s coastline. However, it may cause heavy rains and gusty winds across the coastal areas, including Karachi.
“Winds are blowing and the cyclone alert has perturbed us. We are too scared to stay at home until the cyclone threat is over. We are shifting to our brother’s house in PECHS,” said Jamil Ahmed, a resident of a Clifton apartment block.
‘Beach closed’
Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Home Affairs Wasim Akhtar said that the beach was closed to the public for at least 24 hours from Monday evening.
“We have closed the beach and deployed the police force there,” he added.
He said that the Pakistan Army had already been asked to remain stand-by while efforts were under way to evacuate those living in the low-lying areas close the city’s coastline.
The Rangers were also put on alert in view of the cyclone threat. A spokesman for the Sindh Rangers, Major Abid Ali, said his personnel had been kept ready to meet any eventuality after the Sindh government’s request for emergency assistance. He said relief centres were being established along the coastline in Karachi and the interior of Sindh.
‘Ten-foot-high waves’
The cyclone, around 150 kilometres from the Karachi coast in the Arabian Sea, is gaining intensity and generating gale-force winds. The activity is likely to cause heavy to moderate rains across the city, the chief meteorologist at the Met Office said on Monday evening.
The city’s chief weatherman, Naeem Shah, said that the deep depression over the Arabian Sea had further intensified giving force to the cyclone, which had already taken shape and developed almost 70 per cent. While on the sea surface, it will continue to gain intensity sending strong winds in the north-westerly direction. It has, therefore, been forecast that the under the impact of the cyclonic activity, the areas close to the seashore will receive heavy to moderate rains with gale-force winds.
“We also forecast that the speed of the winds may touch up to 60 nautical miles per hour for a small spell as was experienced by the city on Saturday. However, for two days, the average wind speed will remain between 35 and 40 nautical miles per hour before the cyclonic activity moved towards Balochistan. Today (Monday), the winds are blowing at a speed of around 30 nautical miles per hour,” Mr Shah said, adding that a total of 12mm of rainfall was recorded in the city. The maximum temperature recorded on Monday was 34 degrees Celsius and minimum 25 degrees Celsius with humidity standing at 45 per cent.
The official also spoke of rough sea conditions and high tides over the next 24 hours, warning that the waves breaking on the shore could be as high as 10 feet.
Instead of taking the cyclone alert seriously, people in a large number thronged the beach to watch the huge waves. The police deployed at the beach appeared powerless to keep such a big crowd of people, coming from various localities of the city, away from the seashore, stretched over an area of 14 kilometres.
Power riots
People on Monday continued to stage protest demonstrations in various localities as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation could not restore the power supply to many areas even 52 hours after the massive breakdown caused by the thunderstorm on Saturday evening.
Residents of Lines Area and its adjoining localities lit bonfires elsewhere on the Capri Cinema-Guru Mandir section of M. A. Jinnah Road. In Korangi No.2 ½ , angry power consumers pelted the town administration office with stones and blocked roads with burning tyres and junk.
Parts of Gulshan-i-Maymar, Malir, Jaffar-i-Tayyar Society, Shah Faisal Colony, North Nazimabad, Korangi, Landhi, Orangi Town, North Karachi, Federal B Area, PECHS (behind the Ferozabad police station), Nazimabad, Defence Society, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, etc remained without power till last reports came in at around 11pm on Monday.
Phones out of order
Thousands of landline telephones went out of order in various localities and an unspecified number of cellular phone lines also remained without connectivity due to the bad weather conditions.
Users of landline phones complained that their phone lines had gone out of order with Saturday’s thunderstorm hitting the city. They said the connections could not be restored despite repeated complaints lodged with the PTCL customer centres.
According to the Telephone Subscribers’ Action Committee, as many as 40,000 landline phones were lying out of order. Subscribers of cellular phones also complained of weak signals, voice distortion and trouble in connectivity.
Edhi’s voluntary work
The Edhi Foundation, which has claimed to have received over 200 bodies of those killed in the rain-related accidents on Saturday, handed over 125 bodies to their claimants on Monday.Rizwan Edhi of the Foundation said that hundreds of people visited the Edhi morgue at Sohrab Goth looking for their lost relatives.
The person in charge of the Edhi morgue, Mr Aman, said: “We have buried 14 bodies because of their state of decay.” Their mugshots have been kept in the record for identification purposes, he said, adding that still there were 20 bodies yet to be identified.
