Cyclone Mekunu would be “extremely severe” when it crashes into the Arabian Peninsula this weekend, meteorologists warned yesterday, after earlier thrashing the Yemeni island of Socotra.
At least 17 people are missing on 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 about 200,000 people near the sultanate’s border with war-ravaged Yemen.
Photo: AP
Conditions quickly deteriorated in Salalah after sunrise yesterday, with winds and rain beginning to pick up. Strong waves smashed into empty tourist beaches.
Many vacationers on Thursday night fled the storm before Salalah International Airport was closed.
The India Meteorological Department said the storm in the Arabian Sea was packing maximum sustained winds of 160kph to 170kph, with gusts of up to 180kph.
Socotra Governor Ramzy Mahrous said one ship sank and two others ran aground in the storm.
The storm sent torrents of rain pouring through homes and streets, leaving residents soaking wet and trying to wade to safety.
Of the 17 missing, he said: “We consider them dead.”
Exiled Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in a statement ordered troops under his command on the island to help citizens, deliver supplies and reopen roads.
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 known for its flower-and-fruit bearing dragon blood tree, which resembles an umbrella and gets its name from the dark red sap it secretes.
Salalah, the hometown of Oman’s long-time ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, already began sandbagging low-lying doors and warning residents not to go into valleys due to fears of flash flooding.
Oman sent rescue helicopters to remote villages in its Dhofar Governorate to evacuate those who could be affected by flooding or mudslides. It also evacuated the critically ill from Sultan Qaboos Hospital in Salalah, flying them north to the capital, Muscat.
The port of Salalah, crucial to Qatar amid a boycott by four Arab nations over a diplomatic spat with Doha, said it had also taken precautions and secured cranes ahead of the cyclone’s arrival.
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