A public holiday has been announced in Karachi for today (October 1) as the threat of a tropical cyclone and torrential still looms.
The decision was shared by Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab late on Thursday night.
“Keeping in view the situation resulting from the expected tropical cyclone and the rainfall, it has been decided that Friday will be a public holiday,” he said.
He added that all offices, educational institutions and businesses, apart from essential services, will remain closed in the metropolitan city. An official notification was also issued by the Karachi commissioner.
‘System likely to strengthen during next 6 hours’
In an update shared on Friday morning, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that the depression over the northeast Arabian Sea had moved west-northwestward during the last 12 hours and had concentrated into a “deep depression”.
It said that the system was at a distance of 160km from Karachi, 140km from Thatta and 270km from Ormara.
“Estimated maximum sustained surface wind is 30-40Kts and the sea condition is rough/very rough around the system centre. The system is likely to strengthen further into a cyclonic storm during next six hours and move west-northwestwards towards the Makran coast,” the PMD said.
It also predicted widespread rain, wind-thunderstorms with scattered heavy/very heavy rainfall and squally winds in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Dadu and Jamshoro districts from Friday (today) till the night of Oct 2 (Saturday).
Widespread rain, wind-thunderstorms with scattered heavy/very heavy falls likely in Gwadar, Lasbela, Awaran, Kech, Khuzdar, Kalat and Panjgur districts of Balochistan till the night of October 3 (Sunday), the PMD said.
It added that scattered rain-wind/thunderstorm was also expected in Thaparkar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allayar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushero Feroz, Sukkur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts till Saturday.
The PMD said that sea conditions would remain rough till Sunday and advised fishermen to refrain from venturing into the sea until then.
“Torrential rains may generate urban flooding in Karachi, Badin, Thatha, Hyderabad, Dadu, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Lasbela, Somiani, Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar, Turbat and Jiwani,” the department reiterated, adding that the windstorm may damage vulnerable structures.
On Thursday, the Met department had made it clear that if the deep depression in the Arabian Sea turned into a cyclone it would be called ‘Shaheen’ as suggested by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Panel on Tropical Cyclone.
City life on edge
On Thursday, city life remained on the edge due to scattered rainfall and strong winds that uprooted several structures, including poles.
The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) also issued a red alert ahead of the tropical cyclone, while all the civic bodies and Sindh government declared a rain emergency in their respective departments.
Sardar Sarfaraz of the Met office described Thursday’s weather as mostly normal. He termed “the situation still serious if the system doesn’t turn into a
cyclone.”
“It’s expected to induce widespread rains and high winds as it moves closer to our coast. The weather system would likely to turn into deep depression by night and then into a cyclone by 11am to 12pm on Friday,” he said.
Most parts of the city received downpour in different hours of the day, but none of them could get countable rain and only traces were found in the city areas.
