Weakened Biparjoy barrelling towards coastal areas

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: Over 57,000 people were evacuated from the coastal areas of Thatta, Sujawal and Badin districts of Sindh and moved to relief camps as the extremely severe cyclonic storm (ESCS) Biparjoy moved closer to Pakistani and Indian coasts, officials said on Tuesday and urged people left behind in villages and towns to leave their homes on the coast to avoid any eventuality.

On the other hand, the federal government is planning to suspend all domestic and international flight operations through the western air corridor forthwith. Flight operations have already been paused in the coastal areas close to Karachi, Ormara, Thatta and other places.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said they had so far moved 57,000 people from their homes from Keti Bandar, Ghorabari, Shaheed Fazil Rahu, Badin, Shah Bandar, Jati, Kharo Chan and adjoining areas, while dozens of relief camps have been established to keep the displaced people there till the threat is over.

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) officials said very heavy rains with some extremely heavy falls accompanied by squally winds of 80-120 km/hour were expected in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas and Umerkot districts in the coming four days under the influence of Biparjoy, which was likely to hit between Keti Bandar and the Indian state Gujarat coasts on the afternoon of June 15. “Biparjoy has maintained its intensity as an extremely severe cyclonic storm during the last 6 hours,” the PMD said in its latest alert Tuesday night.

“Favourable environmental conditions are supporting the system to maintain its severity,” Dr Sardar Sarfraz, chief meteorological officer (CMO), Sindh, told The News. He said Biparjoy in the east-central Arabian Sea was maintaining its intensity and had moved further north-northwestward during the past six hours and now lay near latitude 21.2N and longitude 66.6 E at a distance of about 380 kms south of Karachi and 390 kms south of Thatta. “Maximum sustained surface winds of 140-150km/hour, gusting to 170km/hour are hovering around the system centre and phenomenal sea conditions are brewing around the system centre with a maximum wave height of 30 feet.”

Dr Sarfraz maintained that with the cyclone’s probable north-northeast track, rain-thunderstorm with some very heavy falls and squally winds (80-100 Km/hour) were expected in southern/southeastern Sindh (Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas districts) till the evening of June 17. Storm surge of 3-5 meters (8-12 feet) can be possible, he said.

The PMD official maintained that dust/thunderstorm-rain with isolated heavy falls was likely in the Hub and Lasbela districts of Balochistan during June 14-16, adding that squally (high intensity) winds might cause damage to loose and vulnerable structures, including Kutcha houses and solar panels. Furthermore, a “storm surge of 3-3.5 meters (8-12 feet) is expected at the landfall point (Keti Bandar and surroundings) which can inundate the low-lying settlements. Sea conditions along the Sindh coast may get very rough likely with 2-2.5 meters high waves along the Balochistan coast (Sonmiani, Hub, Kund Malir, Ormara and surroundings),” he said, adding that fishermen were advised not to venture into the open sea till the system was over by June 17.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Sindh government, NDMA and other relevant organisations to make all-out resources to protect the people from the cyclone. Chairing a meeting, he directed the Sindh government, NDMA and other organisations to ensure the establishment of mobile hospitals in coastal areas.

On the other hand, addressing a joint press conference with Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir and Chairman NDMA Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik in Islamabad, Senator Sherry Rehman said all preventive measures had been taken and relocation will continue all night from coastal areas.

“We are not taking any risk and exposing anyone to this situation whereas no medical emergencies have been reported yet,” she said. Cyclonic winds had started and 24/7 monitoring was underway and would continue till June 18th. “Shipping schedules have already been impacted whereas small crafts and fishermen were not taking advisories seriously. The small craft fishermen will have to return from the open sea for their safety,” the minister said. She said there was no need to panic as the government had taken timely action and issued alerts to the relevant departments. “Evacuations help in saving lives and we will do it forcibly as has been done in Keti Bandar. However, Karachiites must not panic and take individual precautionary measures,” she added.

The NDMA and other departments would continuously ensure social media feed news updates on cyclone, she said.

Federal Minister Khurram Dastgir said there was no major risk to power infrastructure and all relevant measures were in place to ensure an unimpeded power supply. The minister provided a detailed account of decisions taken in a high-level meeting with the PM on the cyclone. Dastgir said LNG shipments were not coming to Pakistan due to the severe cyclone as shipment schedules had been changed. “Our power infrastructure at 1,000 kms away from the cyclone has been impacted. We have decided that the gas supply be diverted to power stations to continue energy production. Expected impacts like strong winds can impact our wind turbines in Chimb as the wind gusts beyond 90km/h can have effects on its functioning,” he added. He said the other critical area to be impacted was transmission lines at the local level and also major transmission lines due to the cyclonic winds. However, the prime minister and water resources minister have allowed increasing power production from Tarbela.

Dastgir said in order to make up for the power shortage, 48-96 hours of oil production would be introduced for power generation. He added that the Power Division would ensure energy generation and no offset would be faced in it whereas no further add up to occur in the existing power outage. The vulnerable power infrastructure area lies mainly in the Hyderabad Electric Power Supply Company’s jurisdiction which is on alert.

Chairman NDMA Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik said Biparjoy was less than 400 kms away from the country’s coastline and its direction was bending towards north and northeastward. A National Emergency Committee has been created by the prime minister comprising the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, NDMA and other partners. “Moreover, the military V Corps, PMSA etc., are cooperating under a joint information management system,” he said. Relocation to safer places was underway and further preventive measures like rescheduling flight operations and protection of maritime assets would also be taken. “We will ensure no shortage of required equipment. We have briefed INGOs and volunteers on the situation. The relocation camps have been equipped with all required necessities.”

Pakistan Army, Rangers and district administrations are working together to ensure evacuations and relocation whereas Keti Bandar has been completely vacated while 90 percent of Sujawal district has also been vacated. He added that some 50,000 more people would be evacuated to Thatta and Badin whereas medical and ration would be needed in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the KMC staff was removing billboards and hoardings following court orders in Karachi.

In a related development, the federal government has planned to stop all national and international flights landing and flying through its western air corridor forthwith in view of the cyclone. All airports and airstrips in southern coastal areas would be closed till further orders from today (Wednesday). Permission in this regard was sought from the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The flight schedule faced disturbances on Tuesday evening when squally winds started blowing across the southern region. A private airline that took off from Karachi for Islamabad, first faced a delay of about 45 minutes due to heavy winds and immediately after takeoff had to be diverted to Zhob and it reached Islamabad while flying over Mianwali.

Sources pointed out that as soon Islamabad receives the green signal from the International Civil Aviation Organization, it would announce the closure of the western corridor. Flight operations have already been paused in the coastal areas close to Karachi, Ormara, Thatta and other places.