Mysorean Among 49 Killed in Gonu in Oman
Lawrence Milton - Times News Network
Mysore, Jun 9: 'Hello brother how are you, you may be fine cyclone has started here and I have no problem and owner has sanctioned two days leave good morning Paki). This SMS was the last communication Jnana Prakash (26) sent to his friend Praveen on June 6 at 1:08:54 pm before Cyclone Gonu struck Muscat.
Rangaswamy alias Prakash fell victim to its ferocious sweep across the Gulf. Praveen said Prakash (fondly called Paki) would converse with him in a North Karnataka accent which he’d picked up at the Catholic centre.
Today, Prakash’s home in Bisalwadi, a village 15 km from Chamarajanagar is in mourning. His parents are in shock. They spend sleepless nights and eat little as they await his body for the funeral.
Prakash’s mother Chikkathayamma alias Susan (50) is inconsolable. She keeps saying she wants her son back and nothing else. His father, Maniaiah alias Marcus (65) is bedridden and takes refuge in silence. And his brothers Christopher (31) and Prasad shed tears when asked about Prakash. The village of about 1000 families grieves with them.
Former director of Catholic Centre in Mysore, Rev Father Mariraj said Prakash was brought up in the centre. He stayed there for four years before leaving for Muscat in October 2004 to work as a driver in Techno Fit Trading. Prakash visited his parents and the centre in December last year.
Fr Mariraj said Prakash cared a lot for his family and planned to renovate their dilapidated house in Bisalwadi. He said company owner Ligory D’Mello, who was with Prakash, escaped with injuries. D’Mello was in touch with the Indian embassy to bring Prakash’s body home. Due to bad weather, Muscat Air services have been cancelled till Friday evening and this may take another two to three days.
Death toll from Oman cyclone rises to 49
MUSCAT, Jun 9: Cyclone Gonu, which tore through Oman on Wednesday before veering towards Iran, killed at least 49 people and left another 27 missing in the Gulf sultanate, police said yesterday.
“The death toll from Cyclone Gonu has risen to 49,” a police spokesman told the official ONA news agency.
Oman was lashed by driving rain and heavy winds on Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the face of the storm.
Television broadcast footage of overturned cars and flooded roads on the battered east coast, and a police spokesman said officers even had to use jet skis in some areas of the seaside capital.
As the sunshine returned to the normally dry sultanate on Thursday, residents ventured into the open to find trees and road signs uprooted and debris washed up along the shore.
Although the storm had raised fears about oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one quarter of the world’s crude supplies pass, officials said shipping had not been affected.
Muscat airport, which was closed by the storm, reopened yesterday, flagcarrier Omanair said.
The hurricane damaged roads and bridges connecting Oman’s eastern provinces with Muscat and caused floods and landslides. Muscat streets became turbulent rivers, trees were uprooted and power lines cut.
A Muscat resident said he had to take his children to the roof of his three-storey house to flee the rising water.
In neighbouring Iran, the storm lost force as it drove inland after hitting the southern coast late on Wednesday, killing two people and forcing some 40,000 to flee.
By late Thursday, most of those who had been evacuated from coastal areas in the southern Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces had returned to their homes, state television said.
Two people in a truck loaded with emergency supplies were killed in Hormozgan’s southern port of Bandar-e Jask when a river overflowed because of the heavy rains, causing the vehicle to overturn, relief officials said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki telephoned his Omani counterpart, Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, to express sympathy for those affected and to offer help, Iranian state television said yesterday.
“(Iran) is ready to offer any kind of aid and assistance to those hurt by the cyclone and the victims’ families,” Mottaki said.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards’ air force said it had delivered 40 tons of food to the port city of Chabahar in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Port Director Moussa Murad said there were 10 sailors missing from the same boat.
The port reopened on Thursday after closing on Wednesday and Oman’s Al Seeb airport reopened yesterday after three days.
Oman’s Mina al Fahal oil terminal resumed operations after a three-day closure. Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) said its operations and facilities had escaped damage.
PDO, a majority state-owned firm, produces most of Oman’s crude. PDO expects its output to decline by around 20,000 bpd this year to between 560,000 and 570,000 bpd.
The main liquefied natural gas terminal at Sur, which was badly hit, was not operating yet, a shipper said. Sur terminal handles 10mn tonnes per year of LNG.
Sohar refinery and port reopened and these facilities were working as well as before the storm, the company said.
Oman’s weather centre says Gonu could be the strongest storm to reach Oman’s coast since 1977. That storm took an inland trajectory toward rural areas, while Gonu moved along Oman’s heavily populated coast.