The waves on Karachi beach appeared a shade more turbulent than normal, while their height was not particularly high either. The roar and thunder of tidal waves, as had been feared, luckily did not batter the city known for its fragile infrastructure.
But while the city was spared the fury of the cyclone, nature’s tantrums exhibited themselves in the shape of torrential rains and winds starting from Saturday midnight and continuing intermittently on Sunday.
A total of nine people, including two children and a woman, died of electrocution in Karachi during the heavy rainfall.
According to chief meteorologist of Met Office, the cyclone – which left 15 people dead in Oman before it veered towards Pakistan’s coastal areas – will turn into low pressure over the next 12 hours. He forecast more rains with strong winds amid overcast conditions on Monday.
Tens of thousands of people had already been removed from vulnerable coastal villages in Sindh, but thousands more refused to abandon their homes.
Hospitals had been put on alert and medicines and tinned foodstuffs stockpiled, as meteorologists had warned the cyclone might uproot power and communication lines along the coast.
Cyclone Phet initially made landfall on Oman’s coastline, where 15 people died, including a Bangladeshi and a Pakistani, and a Met official said it could move further eastwards to India from Pakistan.
Authorities had already evacuated 60,000 people from along the 1,000-kilometre coastline, including 23,000 on outlying islands, but thousands more declined to abandon their homes.
“Thousands of people are still living in the city’s coastal suburbs and are not ready to leave their homes,” said Roshan Shaikh, a senior official with the provincial disaster management authority, said before Phet passed the city milestone.
“Initially we decided to shift them forcibly, but we could not as it might create unrest. However we are ready to save them in the minimum possible time,” Shaikh told AFP news agency.
The head of the disaster management authority, Sualeh Farooqi, said Karachi’s infrastructure was weak and that there might have been problems had the cyclone made a thunderous landfall here.
Thousands of large advertising billboards along the city streets had been taken down for fear that the winds could blow them over.
Hundreds of relief camps had been established in the affected areas but people complained about the lack of facilities.
“My family had gone to a relief camp a couple of days ago but there were not enough food and medical facilities which forced us to come back home,” Mohammad Hashim, a resident of Rerhi Goth, said.
Nadeem Ahmed, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), said all the agencies and armed forces had been put on alert.
“We are ready with our maximum abilities and resources to tackle any emergencies,” he told AFP while the cyclone was still awaited.
Riaz said the authorities had recorded 128 millimetres of rain in the first spell of a cyclone-related downpour late Saturday.
The government had established relief camps in school buildings and set up health units and control rooms ready to operate if necessary, an official said.
A Balochistan provincial government official, Ataullah Mengal, said
cyclone-related rains had injured 18 people in the coastal areas but no deaths had been reported.
Karachi people suffered as their cars were trapped on heavily inundated roads during commutes home. At least 25 trains were reported delayed because of rains and the travelers were left in misery. Motorcycles falling over on slippery roads were fairly common incidents.
Other coastal districts of Sindh also received heavy rain with thunderstorm in early hours of Sunday. They include Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar. The rain caused inundation of low-lying areas in the districts where administrations had already declared emergency.
On the directives of Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan, arrangements had been made to provide immediate rescue and relief to the people of the coastal belt. The MQM chief Altaf Hussain has also announced Rs 2.5 million for the relief effort. (Additional input from AFP, APP, PPI)
Published in the Express Tribune, June 7th, 2010.
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