Cyclone kills 12 in Oman
Friday, June 8, 2007
TWELVE people have been killed in Oman by Cyclone Gonu, police said yesterday, as the most violent tropical storm to hit the Gulf region in three decades beared down on neighbouring Iran.
The cyclone lashed Oman with driving sheets of rains and heavy winds last Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the Gulf sultanate and in Iran, where three people were reported killed.
The storm raised fears about oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, where about one quarter of the world's crude supplies pass, although no major disruption was reported.
Two ports in Oman were shut down last Wednesday and flights cancelled at Seeb international airport.
"The number of people confirmed dead is 12," Omani police spokesman Colonel Abdallah bin Ali al-Harthi told state television.
Television showed images of overturned cars and flooded roads on the battered east coast and a police spokesman said officers had to use jet skis to get around some parts of the seaside capital Muscat.
"I was surprised to see how strong the storm was," Abu Said, a 48-year-old Omani businessman who was one of thousands of people who fled his home on the east coast to safer areas inland.
"This is the first time I have seen anything like it."
As the sunshine returned to the normally dry state, residents began venturing out into the streets, where trees and street signs were uprooted and debris washed up along the shore included a car seat and a television set.
In Iran, tens of thousands of people hunkered down in shelters as they awaited a second onslaught of ferocious winds and driving rains.
Cyclone Gonu hit Iran's southern coast late last Wednesday after arriving across the Strait of Hormuz from Oman, packing winds of 200km an hour and damaging clay-built houses ill equipped to withstand the storm.
"We are expecting the second wave to enter the province and we are already seeing the rain," Yasser Hazbavi, the head of Hormozgan's natural disaster committee told state television.
AFP
The cyclone lashed Oman with driving sheets of rains and heavy winds last Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the Gulf sultanate and in Iran, where three people were reported killed.
The storm raised fears about oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, where about one quarter of the world's crude supplies pass, although no major disruption was reported.
Two ports in Oman were shut down last Wednesday and flights cancelled at Seeb international airport.
"The number of people confirmed dead is 12," Omani police spokesman Colonel Abdallah bin Ali al-Harthi told state television.
Television showed images of overturned cars and flooded roads on the battered east coast and a police spokesman said officers had to use jet skis to get around some parts of the seaside capital Muscat.
"I was surprised to see how strong the storm was," Abu Said, a 48-year-old Omani businessman who was one of thousands of people who fled his home on the east coast to safer areas inland.
"This is the first time I have seen anything like it."
As the sunshine returned to the normally dry state, residents began venturing out into the streets, where trees and street signs were uprooted and debris washed up along the shore included a car seat and a television set.
In Iran, tens of thousands of people hunkered down in shelters as they awaited a second onslaught of ferocious winds and driving rains.
Cyclone Gonu hit Iran's southern coast late last Wednesday after arriving across the Strait of Hormuz from Oman, packing winds of 200km an hour and damaging clay-built houses ill equipped to withstand the storm.
"We are expecting the second wave to enter the province and we are already seeing the rain," Yasser Hazbavi, the head of Hormozgan's natural disaster committee told state television.
AFP
Business Besides Oil
