According to Met office, “the cyclone is expected to make landfall near Karachi and in the nearby province of Baluchistan on Sunday with “maximum sustained winds around 35 to 50 nautical miles per hour. “The Cyclone Phet has been reduced to category one storm. However, its intensity has not been downgraded much while the most of the coastal areas of Pakistan will continue facing its effects in form of rains and thunderstorm. According to government sources, some 35,000 people have been shifted to safer locations from vulnerable coastal villages in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces. However, there are number of villages and localities where the communities have refused to move and leave their homes and properties behind. According to SPO teams in Karachi, Badin and Thatta, at number of places, children and women have been sent to the camps established in government schools and other public buildings while men are resisting evacuation.
Cyclone Situation in Balochistan
The storm has already started to create havoc in Baluchistan, which saw 133 millimeters of rainfall during the last 24 hours and flooding in some areas, the department reported on Saturday. Authorities are evacuating people to safe areas and Army, Frontier Constabulary and Navy have been put on high alert.
It has been raining intermittently in the coastal areas of Balochistan, including Gwadar since Friday morning. In Balochistan, though the efforts were made little late as compared to Sindh, people have been evacuated from some coastal areas. In Gwadar some evacuations have been made today afternoon by the district government Gwadar and Pakistan Navy in Jiwani. Some 5000 people of villages Demi Zir, Mulla Bund Warh (3 to 4 feet water house are inundated water), Kohbun Warh, Gulf Usmania Warh have been moved to three places namely RCDC- Gwadar, Boys College Gwadar and Port Building. Further, some 2000 people have migrated to their relatives to the safe places in the outskirts of Gwadar.
In Tehsil Jiwani 200 households moved to safer places to middles school Rasani Bazzar, Girls School Razsani Bazzar, Primary School Shehzada Bazzar, Welfare Office Jiawani and Naval base Jiwani. Five fishers’ men also reported missing as moving to their houses beside these 100 boats of fisher men wracked. The situation become terrible as protection barrier wracked close Shehzada Bazzar where this sources was also providing drinkable water. Mud houses collapsed due to flash flood water and spill over of protection bund. Coast Guard Pasni (Tehsil Pasni) announced the inhabitants of Babbarshoor union council to be shifted to Pak Public School. Kallag union council is affected by heavy rain water. Some houses of Babbarshoor and Kallag are badly affected by heavy rain .
Despite heavy rains in the areas around Merani Dam, the rivers are flowing normally as major rainfall has been recorded in downstream of Merani dam. There are chances for high inflow in the dam on Sunday only if rains become heavier. So far, no significant water flow in any of the rivers has been witnessed in the Kech and rivers flowing to Merani dam. However, there is flood like situation in the Nullaha and streams in district Gwadar. According to fresh updates road access to Turbat and Gwadar is not clear for travel. SPO teams are coordinating for the any FIs and NFIs needs between the settlements where people have been shifted. As soon as the assessments are received, details will be shared.
SPO’s Monitoring and Assessment Teams
A couple of days earlier, SPO sent disaster alert to its offices in Thatta, Karachi, and Turbat. SPO has placed its humanitarian teams at five places namely Thatta, Badin, Gwadar, Javni and Turbat. Initial assessments are being made and teams are having an eye to look into the situation for any sort of humanitarian crisis, if arises.
For further details or any other relevant information, please contact
Special Project Section Strengthening Participatory Organization – Islamabad Mr. Noor Baloch on 0321-2290286 and Shahan Abbas on 0321-9696177 (051)2104677, 2104679-80, 8316890, 2298892-3
