Cyclone hits Arab Peninsula
SALALAH: Cyclone Mekunu blew into the Arabian Peninsula earlyyesterday, drenching arid Oman and Yemen, cutting off power lines and leaving at least three dead and 40 missing, officials said.
Portions of Salalah, Oman’s third-largest city, lost electricity as the cyclone made landfall. The Arabian Sea churned, sending mounds of foam into the air. The waves ate into one tourist beach, and toppled thatch umbrellas cemented into the sand.
As Mekunu barrelled overhead, the eye of the storm provided a moment’s respite. At one luxury hotel, which had evacuated its guests, workers sat down early for a traditional “suhoor”, a meal Muslims eat before sunrise during the holy fasting month of Ramadaan. Three people, including a girl, 12, died in Oman, and 40 are missing from the Yemeni island of Socotra, which earlier took the storm’s brunt, police said. Yemenis, Indians and Sudanese were among the missing on the Arabian Sea isle and officials feared some may be dead.
India’s meteorological department said it packed sustained winds of 170 to 180km/h with gusts of up to 200km/h, calling it “extremely severe”.
Across Salalah, branches and leaves littered the streets. Several underpasses became standing lakes. Some cars were left abandoned on the road. Electrical workers began trying to repair lines in the city while police and soldiers in SUVS patrolled the streets. On the outskirts of the city, near the Salalah International Airport, what once was a dry creek bed had become a raging river.
Many holidaymakers fled the storm on Thursday night before the airport closed. The Port of Salalah also closed, its cranes secured against the pounding rain.
Omani forecasters warned that Salalah and the surrounding area would get at least 200mm of rain, over twice the city’s annual downfall. The authorities remained worried about flash flooding in the valleys and potential mudslides down its nearby mountains.
A sizable police presence fanned out across the city, the hometown of Oman’s longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Many officers rode in Royal Oman Police SUVS with chicken wire over the windows, probably because their other vehicles were not tall enough to manoeuvre through the floodwater.
Flash floods engulfed Socotra streets, cutting electricity and communication lines. Some humanitarian aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates arrived just hours after the cyclone receded.
Socotra has a unique ecosystem and is home to rare plants, snails and reptiles found nowhere else on the planet. – Ap/african News Agency/ana