Reuters:
MANDVI, India/KARACHI, June 15 – Authorities in India and neighbouring Pakistan have evacuated more than 150,000 people from vulnerable coastal areas in the path of cyclone Biparjoy, set to whirl in from the Arabian Sea and make landfall by Thursday night.
Biparjoy, which means ‘disaster’ or ‘calamity’ in the Bengali language, was centred 140 km (87 miles) off Jakhau port in India’s western state of Gujarat and 230 km (143 miles) off Pakistan’s southern port of Karachi, weather officials said.
“We are expecting the cyclone to make landfall during the evening, around 8 or 8:30 p.m.,” said Manorama Mohanty, the Gujarat director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which warned the process could last until midnight.
It added that the cyclone could cause tidal waves in the Arabian Sea as high as 2 m to 3 m (7 to 10 ft) that could inundate low-lying coastal areas in both countries.
Classified as a category one storm, the least severe on a scale of one to five, Biparjoy appeared to have lost some of its intensity.
It was expected to have a maximum sustained wind speed of 115 to 125 kph (71 to 78 mph) gusting up to 140 kph (87 mph), down from Wednesday’s estimate of 150 kph (93 mph).
