Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab warned citizens against unnecessary movement on Thursday as more rain is expected due to a potential cyclone over the Rann of Kutch in India that is likely to emerge along the Sindh coast late tonight or tomorrow morning.
According to an alert from the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued at 10pm today, a deep depression over the Rann of Kutch has very slowly moved west/southwest over the last 12 hours and now lies around 250 kilometres east/southeast of Karachi.
“The system is likely keep moving further west/southwestwards, emerge into northeast Arabian Sea along Sindh coast by tomorrow morning and intensify further into a cyclonic storm due to favourable environmental conditions, sea surface temperature, low/moderate vertical wind shear and upper-level divergence,” the statement read.
According to Zoom Earth’s live radar, the system has a high chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 24 hours.
“It’s been raining since last three days and in the next few hours, it is expected that there will be heavier rainfall with strong winds,” Mayor Wahab said on X as he urged people to avoid unnecessary movement.
Under the system’s influence, widespread rain and thunderstorms, along with scattered heavy/very heavy and isolated extremely heavy falls, are likely till August 31 in the Karachi division as well as Tharparkar, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Jamshoro, Dadu and Shaheed Benazirabad districts.
Sea conditions are likely to remain very rough with squally winds of 50 to 60 km/hour, the PMD alert warned. It advised fishermen not to venture into the sea till August 31.
“PMD’s cyclone warning centre in Karachi is monitoring the system and will issue the update accordingly,” the statement said. “The concerned authorities are requested to keep them abreast through PMD advisory.”
The powerful weather system made its presence felt early on Tuesday morning with a windstorm and heavy showers lashing Karachi, disrupting life and damaging civic infrastructure.
The PMD’s forecast of up to 200mm of rain in Karachi and 500mm in other cities in Sindh has kept the authorities on their toes to take urgent measures to deal with the potential risk of urban flooding.
Ban on fishing, swimming in Karachi sea; schools closed
In view of the PMD alert, a ban on “fishermen venturing into the sea, as well as on swimming, bathing, diving, and wading in the sea/beaches and coastal areas” of Karachi Division has been imposed, effective from today till Aug 31 (Saturday).
According to a notification issued today by Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi, the ban was imposed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to “avoid any untoward incident of drowning and to save precious lives of the general public”.
The notification highlighted that sea conditions were “likely to remain rough to very rough, with squally winds of 50-60km/hour”.
It added that the South district commissioner had suggested imposing the ban “given the expected rough sea conditions, which may endanger the lives of people intending to visit the beach for swimming or those involved in fishing activities in the open sea”.
The Keamari DC also “reported high tides and turbulent waves in the Arabian Sea”, the notification stated.
Commissioner Naqvi also empowered the station house officers concerned to register cases under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code against those who violate the ban.
The commissioner also ordered that all public and private schools would remain closed in the city on Friday.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah ordered the local administration and all relevant departments to remain vigilant.
“All necessary preparations needed to deal with any emergency situation should be completed,” CM Murad was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his spokesperson Abdul Rasheed Channa.
The chief minister also directed the health department to ensure that the province’s hospitals “improved their arrangements”. He also issued instructions to the fisheries department regarding fishermen’s safety amid “extraordinary sea conditions”.
“Continue monitoring the rivers, streams and other water passages,” CM Murad ordered the water department.
In the 24 hours up to 8am today, the Tharparkar district received the highest amount of rainfall in Sindh — 347 millimetres across seven tehsils — the PMD said in an update.
Karachi recorded a cumulative 190mm of rain with Surjani Town receiving the highest amount (30mm).
Mirpurkhas district witnessed 143mm of rain while Hyderabad and Badin got a close 116mm and 112mm, respectively.
According to the Met Office, the maximum wind speed was recorded at Masroor Base (67km/hour) and Faisal Base (52km/hour).
Thousands evacuated as cyclone builds
Meanwhile, heavy rains battered India and Pakistan’s coastal areas along the Arabian Sea, flooding cities in western India’s Gujarat state and forcing thousands of people from their homes, with authorities predicting the cyclonic storm to develop by Friday.
People waded through waist-high waters that partly submerged vehicles and roads in parts of the state, visuals from Reuters television showed.
At least 28 people have died this week from rain-related incidents in the state, officials said, as meteorologists in India and Pakistan warned that more heavy downpours and strong winds were expected to lash the coast.
“There is no electricity for the last two days,” said Prabhu Ram Soni, who lives in Gujarat’s coastal city of Jamnagar. “I have an eight-month-old daughter and an asthma patient, my mother, who is on oxygen support.”
More than 18,000 have been evacuated since Sunday from cities near the coast, disaster management authorities said. The army was also involved in relief efforts in the state which was hit last year by cyclone Biparjoy, damaging infrastructure and leading to the evacuation of more than 180,000 people.
Heavy rains also lashed Jamnagar, home to the world’s largest oil refinery complex, owned by Reliance, the district collector, B K Pandya, told Reuters.
At nearby Vadinar, Nayara Energy, backed by Russian groups including its largest oil producer, Rosneft, runs another refinery.
“They are operational,” Pandya said, when asked if rain had affected work in the refineries, adding that authorities were focusing on rescue efforts in the district.
A deep depression off Gujarat is expected to intensify into a cyclonic storm by Friday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, but it was forecast to move away from the Indian coast over the next two days.
The IMD has forecast extremely heavy rainfall in Gujarat’s Bharuch, Kutch and Saurashtra districts on Friday.
