A vast swathe of western India and neighbouring southern Pakistan that suffered deadly floods last year are bracing for a new deluge as cyclone Biparjoy made landfall on Thursday.
Rain pelted the shores and skies darkened along the Arabian Sea, while dust storms hampered evacuation and rescue work on land.
Authorities expect conditions to worsen for two or three days as Biparjoy was expected to reach wind speeds gusting up to 86mph before slowing down in India’s Gujarat province.
In Pakistan, Keti Bandar in the country’s flood-ravaged southern Sindh province, also lies in Biparjoy’s path.
The bazaars and beaches in Mandvi, India, usually a bustling coastal town known for its wooden boat-makers, were deserted on Thursday under shutdown orders from the government.
Thousands of people in India were evacuated, bringing the total number of people shifted to relief camps to 75,000.
In Pakistan, National Disaster Management Authority chief, Lt Gen Inam Haider Malik, said 73,000 people have been evacuated to safer places so far, and authorities are providing them shelter and food.
The disaster management agency said on Thursday that the cyclone was packing sustained winds of up to 120 kph (about 75 mph) and was projected to hit Pakistan’s Sindh province, the site of one of deadly floods last summer.
At least 1,739 people were killed and 33 million were displaced in 2022 when climate-induced floods swept the country, causing 30 billion dollars (£23.7 billion) in damage.
On Thursday morning, authorities said the storm had lost some of its intensity and was expected to have a maximum sustained wind speed of between 115 kph and 125 kph (71 mph to 78 mph), gusting up to 140 kph (87 mph), a slight decrease in predictions a day earlier.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said the cyclone was bearing down on Jakhau port, where it is likely to make landfall on Thursday evening.
Like southern Pakistan, large parts of coastal Gujarat have been experiencing heavy rainfall and strong winds. Indian authorities warned that the cyclone, classified as a “very severe cyclonic storm,” has the potential to inflict heavy damage once it makes landfall.
A storm surge of two to three metres above the astronomical tide is likely to inundate low-lying areas in the storm’s path. The tides could rise as high as six metres in some places, the IMD has said.
“Elaborate arrangements have been made by us for post-cyclone work like restoration of electricity infrastructure, mobile networks and other infrastructure,” Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel told the Press Trust of India news agency.
A government release said major religious sites in coastal Gujarat such as the Dwarkadhish temple in Devbhoomi Dwarka and Somnath temple in Gir Somnath district will remain closed on Thursday.
On Thursday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was in Azerbaijan on an official visit.
In a tweet the previous day, Mr Sharif said the government had taken all possible measures to ensure the safety of those at risk in the country’s southern Sindh province.
Pakistan so far has not issued any appeal for assistance from the United Nations, which said the previous day it was monitoring the situation. Local charities and aid agencies on both sides were helping the displaced people.
In 1998, a cyclone that hit Gujarat state claimed more than 1,000 lives and caused excessive damage. A cyclone that hit Sindh province and the city of Karachi in 1965 killed more than 10,000 people.
