Two men drowned and hundreds of trees and power poles were uprooted by Cyclone Biparjoy, which weakened on Friday as it headed toward Pakistan after striking the Indian coast.
• Also read: Cyclone Biparjoy: More than 100,000 people evacuated in India and Pakistan
More than 180,000 residents of the western Indian state of Gujarat and neighboring Pakistan have been preemptively relocated from the area that Biparjoy – “disaster” in Bengali – was supposed to traverse.
Less powerful than expected, the “very strong cyclonic storm” crossed the coast near the port of Jakhau (west) on Thursday evening, blowing sustained winds of up to 125 km/h before losing strength a few hours later.
Photo: AFP
Indian forecasters expect it to settle down and turn into a moderate depression by Friday night.
According to the Gujarat state government, two men drowned in the Bhavnagar area on Thursday evening after being washed away by the water.
Previously, Assistant Chief CC Patel had reported 23 injured in the state.
Hundreds of power poles have been uprooted along the coast, causing power outages across much of the region, a Gujarat government spokesman told AFP.
Photo: AFP
Several hundred trees were also uprooted and emergency teams are struggling to get to villages due to debris on the roads.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” 22-year-old Mukesh Pattni told AFP from the concrete camp where he took refuge with 10 other family members. “I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. The trees fall, everything collapses. »
Photo: AFP
Nearly 500 homes were partially damaged after the cyclone, State Relief Commissioner Alok Pandey said.
According to authorities, more than 100,000 residents of this state had fled the coastal areas to seek refuge inland.
In Pakistan, Climate Minister Sherry Rehman announced that 82,000 people have been evacuated from southeastern coastal areas.
“largely spared”
On Friday morning, Ms Rehman said in a Twitter post that her country was “largely spared by the storm at the peak of its strength.”
However, rains of more than 30 cm are forecast for some coastal areas of Pakistan on Friday and Saturday, accompanied by storm surges of up to 2.5 meters.
In the Pakistani city of Badin, shops closed early Thursday evening and the otherwise busy streets emptied as night fell.
“Everyone is very scared,” Iqbal Mallah, a 30-year-old official, told AFP on Friday.
Cyclones are common in this region of the Indian Ocean, home to tens of millions of people. However, scientists explain that these phenomena are gaining importance due to global warming.
One of them, climatologist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Roxy Mathew Koll, told AFP that the cyclones get their energy from the warm water and that surface temperatures in the Arabian Sea, also known as the Arabian Sea, are 1.2 to 1.2° C were 1.4 degrees Celsius higher than four decades ago.
“The rapid warming of the Arabian Sea coupled with global warming tends to result in increased heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere and promotes more intense cyclones,” he summarized.