Oman braces for severe landfall by Cyclone Mekunu
SALALAH (Oman): Cyclone Mekunu will be “extremely severe” when it crashes into the Arabian Peninsula this weekend, meteorologists warned, after earlier thrashing the Yemeni island of Socotra.
At least 17 people were missing from Socotra, with one Yemeni official describing them as likely dead.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall early today near Salalah, Oman’s third-largest city and home to some 200,000 people near the sultanate’s border with war-ravaged Yemen.
Conditions quickly deteriorated in Salalah after sunrise yesterday, with winds and rain beginning to pick up. Strong waves smashed into empty tourist beaches.
Many holidaymakers fled the storm on Thursday night before Salalah International Airport closed.
India’s Meteorological Department said the storm in the Arabian Sea was packing maximum sustained winds of 160-170 kph, with gusts of up to 180 kph.
On Socotra, Gov Ramzy Mahrous said one ship sank and two others ran aground in the storm.
The storm also sent torrents of rain pouring through homes and streets, leaving residents soaking wet and trying to wade to safety.
Mahrous said of the 17 missing: “We consider them dead.”
Yemen’s self-exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered troops under his command on the island to help citizens, deliver supplies and reopen roads.
The island, listed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site, has been the focus of a dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Yemen’s internationally recognised government amid that country’s war after Syiah rebels, known as Houthis, seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Saudi troops recently deployed on Socotra as a confidence-building measure over complaints by Yemen that the UAE deployed troops there without its permission.
Socotra has a unique ecosystem and is home to rare plants, snails and reptiles that can be found nowhere else on the planet.
It is also known for its flowerand fruit-bearing dragon blood tree.
Salalah had already begun sandbagging low-lying doors and warning residents not to go into valleys for fears of flashing flooding. — AP