Cyclone Biparjoy now less than 80 km from Guj coast; winds over 100 kph, landfall soon

Cyclone Biparjoy will slam into coastal Gujarat - beginning with districts of Kutch and Saurashtra - from about 6 pm, bringing with it heavy to extremely heavy rainfall and gale-force winds in excess of 100 kph. Expected to break as a 'very severe cyclonic storm', Biparjoy is now around 80 km from Gujarat's Jakhau Port and around 190 km from the state's Devbhumi Dwaraka district.

A red alert has been sounded for Saurashtra and Kutch with authorities expecting damage to roads, standing crops and houses, as well as disruptions to power supply, communication networks and delays to train services.

WATCH | Biparjoy brings high tides, strong winds to coastal Gujarat

Authorities have so far shifted over 94,000 people from vulnerable areas in eight coastal districts, including residents of 120 villages between zero and 10 km from the seashore in Kutch.

LIVE COVERAGE | Cyclone Biparjoy less than 80 km from Gujarat coast

This will be the second cyclone to hit Gujarat after Tauktae in May 2021.

Impact warning

"Cyclone brings damaging potential... trees and branches can fall and small structures, like thatched, mud or tin houses or houses with asbestos, can suffer severe damage. (Also) tidal waves and heavy rainfalls are also likely in the coastal districts," the IMD chief said.

Ahead of landfall, several parts of Kutch, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka and Amreli districts received heavy rainfall - ranging from 10 to 20 millimetres in six hours till noon on Thursday.

Rain forecasts

The IMD has said the intensity of rainfall will increase as the storm nears the coast, with isolated places in Gujarat's Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar districts likely to witness extremely heavy rainfall over the next few hours.

The 4.30 pm update had a weakening Biparjoy less than 80 km west-southwest of Jakhau and to cross Saurashtra and Kutch sometime after 6 pm with the landfall process expected to take as much as six hours.

Porbandar, Rajkot, Morbi and Junagarh districts will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in some places while Saurashtra and northern Gujarat will see heavy to very heavy rainfall.

Biparjoy is also expected to affect Pakistan's Mandvi and Karachi coasts.

Flood warnings

The condition of the sea along and off the Saurashtra and Kutch coasts is likely to range from 'high to phenomenal' and only improve early Friday.

The IMD has warned of storm surges in Kachchh, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar and Morbi districts in Gujarat, and that low-lying areas may be flooded after astronomical tides as high as six metres in some places.

Evacuation process

Gujarat relief commissioner Alok Pandey said evacuations from coastal areas were completed by Wednesday morning.

Of the 94,427 people moved to temporary shelters in eight coastal districts, nearly 46,800 were evacuated from Kutch followed by 10,749 from Devbhumi Dwarka, 9,942 from Jamnagar, 9,243 from Morbi, 6,822 from Rajkot, 4,864 from Junagadh, 4,379 from Porbandar and 1,605 from Gir Somnath.

READ | Over 74,000 people with 'very severe' cyclone to make landfall today

A state government release said those shifted include nearly 8,900 children, 1,131 pregnant women and 4,697 elderly persons. A total of 1,521 shelter homes have been set up in these eight districts with medical teams visiting regularly.

Rescue teams on standby

Fifteen teams from the National Disaster Response Force and 12 from the State Disaster Response Force have been deployed to strategic points along the Gujarat coastline.

In addition, 115 teams from the state's roadways department and 397 from the electricity department have also been deployed.

READ | Evacuation in focus as cyclone Biparjoy nears, NDRF heads to Gujarat

Apart from local officials and police, four NDRF and five SDRF teams are on standby for rescue and post-cyclone relief work. Also on standby are Army, Coast Guard and Border Security Force teams.

The Army has deployed over 27 relief columns across Gujarat and have begun relief ops with civil authorities and the NDRF, an Army spokesperson told news agency ANI.

Railways takes preventive measures

Western Railway has cancelled 76 trains, short-terminated 36 and short-originated 31 as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of passengers and train operations.

READ | Cyclone Biparjoy: List of trains cancelled by Western Railway

Pakistan's preparations

Pakistan's climate change minister Sherry Rehman said 73,000 people had been moved from south-eastern coastal areas and housed in 75 relief camps. "It is a cyclone the likes of which Pakistan has never experienced," she told reporters.

Many of the areas affected are likely to be the same inundated in last year's catastrophic monsoon floods, which put a third of Pakistan under water, damaged two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.

Storm surges are expected to reach 3.5 metres (11.5 feet), with flooding possible in the megacity of Karachi, home to about 20 million people. "Our concern is when the cyclone is over... how will we feed our children?" Wilayat Bibi, 80, said from a relief camp in Badin. "We will be languishing with no resources."

With inputs from agencies