Yemen island is lashed as cyclone heads for mainland

This October 30 Nasa satellite photo shows tropical cyclone Chapala in the Arabian Sea.Agencies/AdenThe Yemeni island of Socotra near the entrance to the Gulf of Aden was lashed yesterday by strong winds and rain, damaging dozens of homes, an official said. The storm presaged the approach of cyclone Chapala which is expected to hit the Yemeni mainland and Oman today. “More than 80 houses were damaged on the coast of Socotra and hundreds of people were rescued and hospitalised,” Salem Zaher, the mayor of Hadibou, the island’s main town, said. “More than a thousand families were evacuated and resettled in schools and camps” inland amid “intense rainfall and strong winds”, he added. The UN’s weather agency said on Friday that the “super cyclonic storm” named Chapala was expected to make landfall at around midnight today in Yemen and Oman. On Saturday, Yemen’s meteorological agency called on residents of the southeastern provinces of Hadramout and Mohrah—and people on Socotra—to stay at least 1km from the coast. Socotra island is less than 250km from the Horn of Africa and 350km off the Yemeni mainland. It has 50,000 inhabitants, mostly fishermen.  The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has described Chapala as “an extremely severe cyclonic storm”. It said Chapala’s wind speed was the equivalent of a category four hurricane.    Omani authorities ordered schools closed yesterday and today in the southwestern province of Dhofar, ONA state news agency said. It said satellite images have shown that Chapala was approaching the shores with wind speeds between 220 and 250 km per hour. Oman’s civil aviation authority warned that waves higher than 7m were expected to hit the beaches of Dhofar. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) expressed concern that the cyclone could exacerbate food shortages caused by the ongoing conflict in Yemen. WFP regional spokeswoman Abeer Etefa told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Oman’s Salalah port, which lies within the storm’s range, is the main artery for humanitarian aid to Yemen and in case of its closure WFP projects in Yemen would be severely affected.