Heavy rains expected as Phet approaches Karachi.

As the tropical cyclone Phet is set to hit the Karachi’s coastline on Sunday (today), the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned of very heavy rains with dust storm in the coming two days, ringing alarm bells for the city dwellers. Earlier on Saturday, the cyclonic storm caused very heavy rainfall at the Balochistan coastal belt, causing destruction of infrastructure and houses especially in low-lying areas. According to the PMD’s latest cyclone warning issued on Saturday night, after passing along the Makran coast the storm was just 325 kilometres away from Karachi’s coastline. The PMD said that gusty winds up to 100 kilometres per hour (54 knots) could lash the city at the time of landfall of the cyclonic storm. The associated storm surge near the landfall coastal areas could be up to four metres. On June 23, 2007, when massive dust storm lashed the city, winds with 60 nautical miles per hour had lashed the city. After evacuations from two other coastal districts of Sindh i.e. Thatta and Badin, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) had launched evacuation operations from costal villages and islands near Karachi on Saturday. The PDMA officials said that with tropical cyclone with its lessening intensity and decreased threat of storm surge at the Karachi’s coastline, there was no immediate need of evacuations from the posh areas of DHA and Clifton situated near the Karachi costal belt. There are reports that several DHA and Clifton residents have relocated themselves to the houses of their friends and relatives in safer areas in the city in order to avoid any disastrous situation of the storm surge.Chief Meteorologist in Karachi Muhammad Riaz told The News at 10pm on Saturday the intensity of the tropical cyclone in the north Arabian Sea had decreased to category 1 and in the next 12 hours it would make its landfall somewhere at the coastline near Karachi.He said that very heavy rains accompanied with dust storm could lash the city with the landfall of the storm system whose effects on the land areas could linger for next 24 hours. PDMA (Sindh) chief Muhammad Sualeh Ahmed Faruqui said that there was no immediate and clear threat of storm surge in the coastal areas of Sindh except the coastal belt areas where the storm would make its landfall on Sunday. He said that all evacuation and safety arrangements in coastal and low-lying areas of Thatta, Badin and Karachi, had been finalised to avoid any eventuality. The PMD’s cyclone warning issued at 9 pm on Saturday said: “Tropical cyclone has moved eastwards in last six hours along Makran coast and now located at 24N and 62.2E South of Pasni about 325 km from Karachi. “The system is likely to move eastwards during next 12 hours, expected to weaken before making landfall somewhere near Karachi on Sunday (with maximum sustained winds 60 to 80 km/hour gusting to 100 km/hour) with associated storm surge of 2 to 4 meters.“Under the influence of this system, extremely heavy rainfall is occurring over coastal areas of Balochistan (Gawadar 370 millimetres, Jiwani 208 mm, Pasni 139 mm, Turbat 63 mm, Ormara 60 mm) accompanied with very strong wind gusting to 120 km/hour.“More rains heavy to very heavy accompanied with strong gusty winds are expected in Balochistan especially in its coastal areas during the next 24 hours. Sindh is also expected to receive widespread heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next two days starting from Saturday night and gradually increasing afterwards. Heavy rains may cause urban / flash flooding in Balochistan and Sindh, including Karachi.”Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department recorded 29.5 degrees and 35.0 degrees Celsius as minimum and maximum temperatures, respectively, with 59 per cent humidity in the city on Saturday. Maximum wind speed in the city remained 20 knots. The Met office has forecast cloudy weather with chances of dust/thunder storm with rain, as maximum temperature could range between 35 degrees to 37 degrees Celsius.