OMAN: Relief officials say Cyclone Gonu has turned Muscat into a 'lake'

Record ID: 744374

  • Title: OMAN: Relief officials say Cyclone Gonu has turned Muscat into a 'lake'
  • Date: 8th June 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE)(English)UNIDENTIFIED INDIAN MAN, SAYING: "We got some news that there would be some cyclone, or storm, but we never thought this kind of cyclone. It's a huge one, and it's mind-blowing, unacceptable. God is great, who survived, and not..."
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Oman
  • Country: Oman
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA4OEBWXWDKMFBU6ZILSYXFC0I3
  • Story Text: Relief efforts are underway in Oman after Cyclone Gonu struck the coastline of the Gulf country this week, killing at least 12. Relief officials said the cyclone has turned the capital Muscat into "a lake."
    Cyclone Gonu waned into a storm as it passed into a major oil shipping route toward Iran on Thursday (June 7), but killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction that halted Oman's oil and gas exports for a third day.
    "The damage is everywhere. The water is everywhere, inside our bedrooms even. It caused a lot of destruction. We need some help. Even the valleys are submerged, look. Everything is destroyed. Even the valleys and the homes," a Omani boy told Reuters Television
    Gonu, which peaked as a maximum-force Category Five hurricane on Tuesday (June 5) and faded to a Category One hurricane on Wednesday (June 6) is now an ordinary tropical storm, experts said.
    The storm's maximum sustained wind speed is now about 45 miles per hour, the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, and it was likely to keep dissipating.
    The official Oman News Agency said 25 people were confirmed killed by the storm, which turned the streets of the capital Muscat into rivers, flipping over cars, uprooting trees and severing electricity and phone lines. There were 26 people missing.
    Relief officials said the death toll could rise, however, as flooding was hampering access to some areas.
    "The truth is one would not have expected the destruction to be as bad as it is. It is really unfortunate and we should all cooperate and stand together. I think we all have a role to play. All of us as citizens should volunteer to cooperate with the government in order to restore everything as it was before," said another Muscat resident.
    "We were scared because we thought the water was flooding the house, but it didn't, thank God. The cars were destroyed and we were surprised to see the road destroyed as well," a young girl added.
    Three people were killed in southern Iran due to the storm, while those living within 300 metres of the coast in Hormozgan province had been evacuated, Iran state television said.
    State media said roads and houses in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan had been damaged and many coastal areas were cut off by flooding.
    The storm had raised fears of a disruption to exports from the Middle East, which pumps over a quarter of the world's oil, pushing prices to around $71 a barrel.
    Oman's weather centre, which has been keeping records since 1890, says Gonu could be the strongest storm to reach Oman's coast since 1977 though meteorologists say milder tropical storms are common in the region from mid-May to the end of June.
    But whereas the 1977 storm took an inland trajectory toward rural areas, Gonu moved along Oman's heavily-populated coast, sweeping its main cities, industrial areas and ports.
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