Pakistan government orders mass evacuation ahead of cyclone landfall

KARACHI (IANS) | Pakistani authorities on Monday began efforts to evacuate 80,000 civilians from low-lying coastal areas in southern Sindh province as the rapidly intensifying severe cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall later this week. As Dawn reports, the cyclone is making its way across the Arabian Sea towards the coasts of Pakistan and India, expected to make landfall later this week.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said an emergency had been declared and the army was prepared to help relocate the more than 80,000 people at risk.

“We will not request people, but will ask them to evacuate,” Don said. He said that this order is being issued through social media, mosques and radio stations.

A spokesman for Shah said that about 2,000 people had already been moved to safer places from the area of Shah Bandar, a fishing town nestled among a mangrove delta 45 km (28 mi) west of India’s Gujarat state.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned that traditional mud and straw houses, which are home to the poorest households in Pakistan, will be vulnerable to being blown apart in strong winds, reports Dawn.

Karachi – a port city of about 20 million – could also be inundated with dust and thunderstorms gusting to winds of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

Media reported that billboards would be removed and 70 vulnerable buildings in the city would be evacuated, while construction would be halted throughout the affected area.

Heavy rain and strong winds killed 27 people, including eight children, in northwestern Pakistan late on Saturday, officials said.

Undoubtedly, these are the adverse effects of climate change, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter on Sunday.

Last summer Pakistan was hit by heavy monsoon rains that inundated a third of the country, damaged two million homes and killed more than 1,700 people.

–IANS