Pakistan's provincial government on Monday announced the evacuation of over 80,000 people after the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) termed the Biparjoy Cyclone as an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm'. The Sindh Province Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah in a press conference on Monday said an emergency had been declared in the province and the army drafted in to help relocate more than 80,000 people at risk. "We will not request people but demand them to evacuate," said the chief minister, adding that the order was being issued through social media, mosques and radio stations. He said that around 70 buildings in Karachi city had been declared most dangerous and a plan was being devised to evacuate people from there as well. Over 2,000 people have already been evacuated from the area of Shah Bandar in Thatta district. "All will be on emergency duty till the risk of the cyclone persists," he added. PMD on Monday has issued a warning of heavy rain, thunderstorm and squally winds likely in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparkar and Umerkot districts from June 13-17. The Bipajoy Cyclone has moved further northward during the last 12 hours and lay at a distance of about 600 kilometers south of Karachi city, the provincial capital, said PMD in its fresh advisory. The Met department said the system was most likely to track further northward until June 14. The PMD said the cyclone's maximum sustained surface winds were 160-180 kilometers per hour while gusts as high as 200 km/h were around the system center. Sea conditions were phenomenal around the system center with maximum wave height 35-40 feet, it added. The department added that its cyclone warning center in Karachi was continuously monitoring the system and would issue updates accordingly. The sea view roads in the Karachi city were blocked by police for traffic and a ban was imposed on venturing out into the open sea for swimming or fishing. Earlier on Saturday, at least 25 people were killed and over 145 others received injuries in rain-related incidents in Pakistan's northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. The authorities confirmed 15 deaths from Bannu, five from Lakki Marwat, four from Karak and one from DI Khan district. It added that 69 houses were partially damaged due to heavy rain in the affected areas. The cyclone, named Biparjoy, is expected to make landfall on Thursday afternoon between Mandvi in Gujarat and Karachi in Pakistan with a maximum sustained wind speed of 125 to 135 kilometers per hour (78 to 84 miles per hour) with gusts up to 150km/h (93mph), according to officials in both countries. The India Meteorological Department has advised fishing communities to halt operations and people in the Saurashtra and Kutch coastal areas of Gujarat to evacuate. Two of India's biggest ports – Mundra and Kandla – are in the Gulf of Kutch, which is in the path of the storm, while the Jamnagar oil refinery, the world's biggest, is in the Saurashtra region. Seven teams of India's National Disaster Response Force and 12 teams of the State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the districts likely to be affected by the cyclone, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said in a tweet. Karachi, Pakistan's largest and most populous city, is also due to be deluged by dust and thunderstorms with winds whipping up to 80km/h (50mph). Billboards will be removed and 70 vulnerable buildings evacuated in the city while construction will be stopped across the affected area. "Undoubtedly, these are the adverse effects of climate change," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter on Sunday. The strongest cyclone to hit Pakistan was the 1999 Keti Bandar, a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It resulted in the deaths of 6,200 people in Sindh's impoverished Thatta district, where Biparjoy is also likely to hit. — Agencies
