Cyclone Biparjoy updates: Storm loses speed, passes Gujarat

India’s weather department says Biparjoy crossed the Saurashtra-Kutch coast near Gujarat’s Jakhau port two hours ago (between 17:00 and 18:00 GMT) and is now headed northeastwards.

A few hours after the cyclone made landfall in Gujarat, its wind speed has decreased to an average of 78 kilometres per hour, officials in the Indian state said.

“As per IMD and local data collectors, the cyclone hit Gujarat at 10pm (17:30 GMT) with a high wind speed of 108km/h [67mph] but it is now moving at an average speed of 78km/h [48mph] towards Bujh district close to the border with Pakistan,” Alok Pandey, relief commissioner of Gujarat, told reporters a few hours after the cyclone’s landfall.

Pandey said 22 people have been injured as a result of the cyclone and damage to electricity poles has caused power outages in parts of the state.

He said the cyclone will cross over to neighbouring Rajasthan tomorrow morning and lead to heavy rainfall, noting “People in low-lying areas have been asked to evacuate as flash floods [are] expected.”

The cyclone does not seem to be heading towards Keti Bandar, a port town in Pakistan’s south, the country’s disaster management authority has said.

“Biparjoy is currently not headed towards Keti Bandar,” it said in a tweet.

“We are constantly monitoring its movement and all relevant authorities remain on high alert.”

Fishing families who have been evacuated from Pakistan’s coastal towns are concerned about the aftermath of the cyclone, saying their livelihood will be affected if they are not able to go back to fishing.

“How will we feed our children, if our boats are gone and our huts are also gone?” Wilayat Bibi, from a coastal fishing town, asked Al Jazeera.

“We will be languishing with no resources,” she said.

UNICEF’s South Asia Director Noala Skinner says the UN body is “ready to support” India’s national emergency response, focusing on the most vulnerable children and their families.

“We are in contact with the government and working in coordination with interagency groups to share updates and disseminate information in the most affected districts,” Skinner said in a statement.

“We stand ready to do everything possible to reach the most affected girls, boys and families.”

In Karachi, ships and boats have been moved from some coastal areas and hospitals have been put on high alert.

While Pakistan’s largest city and an economic hub of 20 million faced no immediate threat, but emergency measures were being taken to protect against the expected winds and rain, said Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s climate change minister.

“There is no need to panic. Such storms are always unpredictable. But rest assured that we have all our arrangements in place,” said Rehman.

Officials in Gujarat state say its deserted coastal towns were battered in the dark as power went out after electricity poles fell and some trees were uprooted by gusty winds.

As the storm neared land, the windspeed rose around Jakhau, Amit Arora, a district official in the region of Kutch (Kachchh) told the Reuters news agency.

More than 50,000 people were evacuated in Kutch and power supply was disrupted at many places because of strong winds.

Indian television footage showed high waves crashing on the shores of many coastal areas of Gujarat, as winds bent tall trees and displaced some structures.

In the coastal town of Mandvi, a Reuters witness said strong winds had uprooted trees and caused waterlogging. Other districts in the state also reported fallen trees and moderate rain.

Noala Skinner, UNICEF’s regional director for South Asia, said that more than 625,000 children were at immediate risk in Sindh as the cyclone made landfall.

“In Pakistan, Cyclone Biparjoy threatens a new crisis for children and families in Sindh, the province worst affected by last year’s devastating floods,” she said.

Pakistan’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change Sherry Rehman says the cyclone is “still at a distance” from the country.

“[Cyclone Biparjoy] will likely begin counter clockwise landfall around or after midnight [20:00GMT] in our coastal areas,” she said in tweet.

Rehman warned that the sea “may be rough with high waves at the core”.

Pakistan’s weather department has said the cyclone has continued moving towards the northeast in the past three hours and is likely to cross the port of Keti Bandar in southeast of Sindh province in the next “two to six hours”.

“Provincial Emergency Response Centre of Sindh [province] is monitoring the conditions closely and will issue updates accordingly,” it said in a tweet.

“Public is requested to observe precautionary measures and follow government instructions.”

An official with India’s National Disaster Response Force says the cyclone will lose intensity as it moves inland in the direction of central Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan.

“The main impact will be in Kachchh [district] and Saurashtra area of Gujarat, and it [the impact] has begun,” Narendra Singh Bundela, the inspector general of the agency, told local media.

“As it [the cyclone] moves inwards, it will lose intensity, but heavy rainfall is expected in some districts, which could lead to flooding,” he said.

Bundela said locals in the districts likely to be affected by flooding have been warned.

He said the cyclone will not have a major impact on India’s southwestern coastal metropolis Mumbai or its state of Maharashtra.

“There is no major threat in the state, but the sea is expected to remain rough, and we have warned fishermen.”

The chief minister of India’s Rajasthan state, which borders cyclone-hit Gujarat, says, “it is the public’s duty to follow warnings and instructions.”

“The government’s job is to alert the public, and we have done that with announcements and warnings,” Ashok Gehlot told reporters.

“We are fully prepared and monitoring it [the cyclone] closely,” he said.

An official of the India Meteorological Department says the cyclone’s “wall cloud region” is entering the country’s coastal districts.

“Its wall cloud region is entering into the coastal districts and, hence, the landfall process has commenced over the coastal districts,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the department’s director general.

“By midnight [19:30GMT], the eye of the cyclone will be on land,” he added.

The India Meteorological Department has issued an alert saying Cyclone Biparjoy has made landfall near Jakhau Port in the state of Gujarat.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department says the cyclone has moved farther northeastwards over the Arabian Sea over the past three hours and is now 245km (150 miles) south of Karachi, 210km (130 miles) south of Thatta and 145km (90 miles) south of Keti Bandar.

Pakistan’s climate ahange minister Sherry Rehman says Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall later tonight or after midnight.

In a tweet, the minister said the cyclone is now 130km (81 miles) from the town of Keti Bandar.

Pakistan Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman says Karachi, a port city of 20 million people, was not under immediate threat.

Rehman said emergency measures were being taken to deal with winds and rain that were expected to batter the economic hub.

“There will be voluntary evacuations carrying on in the city of Karachi, which is, sort of, not directly in the eye of the storm like the coastal areas … but it is certainly going to feel the brunt of high intensity, high-velocity winds, as well as rainfall,” Rehman said.

Jayantha Bhai, a 35-year-old shopkeeper in the beach town of Mandvi in India’s Gujarat state, says he is afraid for his family’s safety.

“This is the first time I’ve experienced a cyclone,” Bhai, a father of three boys aged between eight and 15, told AFP news agency, adding that he planned to wait out the cyclone in his small concrete home behind the shop.

“This is nature, we can’t fight with it,” he said, as driving rain lashed his home.

Khair Muhammed, a 46-year-old fisherman, has been staying for four days at a relief camp set up by the Sindh government in Golarchi, a city 170km (105 miles) north of Keti Bandar.

“We are given shelter in a small school that can accommodate 100 people. Life is quite difficult here,” Muhammed, who is there with his wife and eight children, told Al Jazeera.

“The government told us we cannot go back to our village before June 18, so all day, we just sit here, waiting and hoping the cyclone does not destroy our boats,” he said.

“We just need to spend two, three more days here, and then I hope to go back to sea. If you cannot catch a fish, how can you earn any money?”