AHMEDABAD/MUMBAI - Four boys drowned in rough seas off the western Indian financial hub of Mumbai on Tuesday as India and Pakistan began evacuating people from coastal areas before Cyclone Biparjoy makes landfall.
More than 100 000 people had been evacuated in India and Pakistan.
Biparjoy, a cyclone whose name means "disaster" in Bengali, is making its way across the Arabian Sea and is expected to make landfall as a "very severe cyclonic storm" on Thursday evening, government weather monitors said.
High waves in the Arabian Sea, accompanied by heavy rains and gusting winds pounded India’s Gujarat's coastal areas, uprooting trees and resulting in a wall collapse that killed three people in Kutch and Rajkot districts, authorities said.
Powerful winds, storm surges and lashing rains were forecast to hammer the 32km-stretch of coast between Mandvi in Gujarat state and Karachi in Pakistan.
Eight districts in coastal Gujarat are expected to be affected, the state government said. Fishing has been suspended and schools have declared holidays.
Gujarat is also home to many offshore oil installations and major ports in the country and most have been forced to suspend operations.
A 1998 cyclone killed at least 4 000 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in Gujarat.
India's Meteorological Department predicted the storm would hit near the Indian port of Jakhau late on Thursday, warning of "total destruction" of traditional mud and straw thatched homes.
At the usually bustling Jakhau port, howling wind battered more than 30 large fishing boats dragged up out of the water on to the shore, as dozens of stray dogs roamed around the port's entrance.
At sea, winds were already gusting at speeds up to 180km/h by Wednesday, forecasters said. Wind speeds are predicted to reach 125-135km/h, with gusts of up to 150km/h, by the time it makes landfall.
India's meteorologists warned of the potential for "widespread damage", including the destruction of crops, "bending or uprooting of power and communication poles" and disruption of railways and roads.
Ports
Two of India's largest ports, Kandla and Mundra, have suspended operations, the state government said. Other ports, including Bedi, Navlakhi, Porbandar, Okha, Pipavav and Bhavnagar, have also closed due to the cyclone, according to shipping sources.
Reliance Industries, which operates the world's largest refining complex in Gujarat's Jamnagar, declared a force majeure, suspending exports of diesel and other oil products from Gujarat's Sikka port, traders said.
The Adani conglomerate's ports business, Adani Ports, said it suspended vessel operations on Monday at Mundra, India's biggest commercial port that has the country's largest coal import terminal, and also at Tuna port near Kandla.
The Indian Coast Guard said it evacuated 50 personnel from a jack-up oil rig off Gujarat's coast named Key Singapore, which is owned by Dubai-based Shelf Drilling and currently working for Cairn Oil & Gas (Vedanta Ltd), according to Shelf Drilling's website.
Pakistan
Pakistan's climate change minister Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday that 62 000 people had been evacuated from the country's south-eastern coast, with 75 relief camps set up at schools and colleges.
Ships and boats have been moved from some areas of Pakistan's coast while hospitals in the region were put on high alert, added Rehman.
She said fishermen had been warned to stay off the water and small aircraft were grounded, while flooding was possible in the megacity of Karachi, home to about 20 million people.
"We are following a policy of caution rather than wait and see," she told reporters in Islamabad. "Our first priority is saving lives."
The Pakistan Meteorological Department forecast gusts of up to 140km/h in the south-eastern province of Sindh, accompanied by a storm surge reaching 3.5m.
Evacuees gathered at a temporary shelter at a school in Sindh's Badin district.
Wilayat Bibi worried her fishing family would be doomed even after the storm passes.
"Our concern is when the cyclone is over, how will we feed our children?" the 80-year-old asked.
"If our boats are gone, if our huts are also gone -- we will be languishing with no resources," she said.
Fishing has also been suspended along India's Gujarat coast, with conditions expected to escalate from "rough to very rough" on Wednesday, to "high to phenomenal".
REUTERS and AFP