Oman at standstill, Iran evacuates thousands
Cyclone Gonu unleashed its fury on Oman and Iran with the authorities in the two countries evacuating tens of thousands from the the coastal areas even as Oman suspended oil exports, closed the major port of Sohar and shut down all airports till Friday.
The cyclone made landfall in Iran at the southern port of Bandar Abbas with wind speeds measuring 200 kmph.
In Oman, as heavy rains lashed coastal areas , authorities closed all operations at the port of Sohar and evacuated the 11,000 workers , port spokesman Dirk Jan De Vink said , adding that Sohar's oil refinery and petrochemical plant remained running at very low levels , with authorities considering a total shutdown .
De Vink said he and the other beachfront residents of the city of 60,000 were leaving their homes , all threatened by rising tides and large waves pushed by the approaching storm . " These people know the force of the sea and they're doing the right thing," he said . Most of them are leaving or have already left .
Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashimi of the Ministry of Oil and Gas said rough seas prevented tankers from sailing from Omani ports , effectively halting the country's oil exports . But production was continuing except in one small field , he said.
In fact, Gonu spared nothing in its destructive path, especially in the interior regions of the Sultanate. Since communication lines in many parts of the interior area are down, there was no way of knowing what was happening there, or even, what had happened and the extent of damage caused by the cyclone.
As of 1500 GMT , the storm was reported about 112 km east-northeast of Muscat , moving in a northwesterly direction, the services said . The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of about 130 kmph.
By Adarsh Madhavan Muscat
© Bahrain Tribune 2007
