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A cyclone hit the coast of Pakistan
1. DATE
Saturday 23 June, 2007
2. WEATHER CONDITIONS
The storm that lashed the city of Karachi, in Sindh province of southern
Pakistan,
on Saturday 23rd June, has eased and a new threat has emerged, with tropical cyclone
Yemyin likely to result in extremely heavy rainfall along the coast of
the neighboring
province of Baluchistan.
Tropical cyclone Yemyin, packing winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130 kph) roared
over the Arabian Sea to the south of Karachi and has hit land between Ormara,
250 km (150 miles) west of Karachi, and Pasni, 400 km west of the port
city of
12 million people on Monday 25th. Karachi received 33mm of rainfall, accompanied
by strong winds.
3. DAMAGE
The minister of health for Sindh province, where Karachi is located, had
earlier
reported that 228 people had been killed in the storms, but the province's
governor
later reduced the total to 213.
Local government authorities report that approximately 3,000 people in
coastal towns
in Baluchistan have been evacuated so far, and after the rains damaged some
250 houses and inundated several villages.
Officials in Karachi say that in just one area of the city, Gadap in the
north-west,
more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed.
Most of the 120,000 residents of the southwestern port city of Gwadar moved
to higher ground, People from several smaller towns nearby loaded possessions
onto camels or into cars and headed for the hills, Mayor Abdul Ghaffar
Hoth said.
But floods washed away some bridges and part of the main coastal highway,
causing lengthy traffic delays. Hundreds of villagers clutching possessions filed
past the vehicles in the opposite directions.
Many of the deaths and injuries resulted from collapsed roofs, flying debris
such as
billboards, uprooted trees and electrocution due to fallen power lines.
Falling billboards and hoardings accounted for many of the fatalities in
the city.
Local media criticized Karachi authorities for allowing oversized billboards with
weak foundations in congested areas.
Power remained suspended in several parts of the city some 48 hours after
the storm,
triggering riots. Angry mobs torched two private cars, attacked power company
vehicles and burned tyres to block traffic in protest. The power outage
also meant
that water pumps were out of order, leaving many people without supplies of fresh water.
A navy spokesman said two fishing boats had been sunk but it was not known
how many people were on board. Nineteen fishermen from two other boats
had
been rescued, while a rescue ship had been sent to help a merchant ship and a tug
with it, he said.
4. NUMBER OF DEAD AND DISPLACED PERSON (as of June 27, 2007)
Dead : 213
Displaced : Morethan 3,000
5.LOCATION
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Sa.nsf/luFullMap/9542B3813F8CB952C1257305005002AA/
$File/rwmm_FL_pak070625.pdf?OpenElement
(Reliefweb)
6. GFAS RAINFALL INFORMATION
According to GFAS, daily precipitation exceeding 5-year return period was
observed
coastal areas of Southern Pakistan on June 25 (Fig.1).
Fig.1:
GFAS Excess area map of 5-year return period precipitation (in red)
June
25, 2007
Please check GFAS page:
http://gfas.internationalfloodnetwork.org/gfas-web
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