Karachi’s Seaview Road was blocked for traffic on Monday to prevent people from heading out into the open sea as the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said Biparjoy, now classified as an “extremely severe cyclonic storm”, was around 600km away from the coastal city.
“Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue has been closed at Sehr junction while traffic from Dolmen Mall, Clifton is being diverted to Khayaban-i-Ittehad via Saba Avenue,” South Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn.com.
“However, traffic from Clock Tower towards Dolmen Mall has been allowed,” he said.
Karachi’s Seaview Road was blocked for traffic on Monday. — Screengrab from video provided by Asim Khan
The precautions came as the PMD issued a fresh advisory which said the cyclone had “moved further northward during the last 12 hours” and lay at a distance of about 600km south of Karachi, 580km south of Thatta and 710km southeast of Ormara.
The Met department said the system was “most likely to track further northward until June 14 morning”.
It added that the cyclone would then recurve northeastward and cross between Keti Bandar (southeast Sindh) and the Indian Gujrat coast on June 15 as a “very severe cyclonic storm”.
The PMD said the cyclone’s maximum sustained surface winds were 160-180km per hour while gusts as high as 200km/h were around the system centre. Sea conditions were “phenomenal around the system centre with maximum wave height 35-40 feet”, it added.
“The favourable environmental conditions … are supporting the system to maintain its intensity,” the PMD said. The department added that its cyclone warning centre in Karachi was continuously monitoring the system and would issue updates accordingly.
In its alert, the PMD cited the system’s approach towards the southeast Sindh coast and warned citizens that “widespread wind-dust/thunderstorm rain with some very heavy/extremely heavy falls accompanied with squally winds of 80-100km/hour” were likely in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparker and Umerkot districts from June 13-17.
It further said that “dust/thunderstorm-rain with few heavy falls and accompanied with squally winds of 60-80km/h” were likely in Karachi, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allayar, Shaheed Benazirabad and Sanghar districts from June 14 to 16.
“Squally (high-intensity) winds may cause damage to loose & vulnerable structures (kutcha houses), including solar panels, etc,” the department said.
A storm surge of 3-3.5 metres was expected when the cyclone made landfall which could inundate low-lying settlements, it highlighted.
The PMD advised fishermen to not venture out into the open sea “till the system is over by June 17 as the Arabian Sea conditions may get very rough/high accompanied with high tides along the coast”.
