Photo taken by me on Thursday after the cyclonic storm Gonu passed over Muscat. The tree in front of Muscat Muncipality Building had fallen. The Muncipality employees were else where attending to more urgent rescue missions all over muscat. They had to attend to roads and buildings washed away by the storm and this tree, at their own place, had to wait.
The "Staff and Public Entrance" sign in front of the main office of the Muscat city administratotion building points to a fallen tree , on thursday.
We woke up late on thursday as we stayed up late during the howling night, anxiously waiting for the storm to pass over. Friends had called in to warn of an impending rush of the eye of the cyclone over Muscat by 10 pm. But fortunately nothing happened and we went into the closed comfort of our bedroom . It was quite when I sleep.
When we opened the windows at 8 am it was bright and sunny. There was few indications of
what we went through the previous night. The tree adjascent to our house seemed as if it was cropped by a barber. The iron sheet of the neighbours gate had been twisted out of shape and was hanging by its hinges. The boundary wall behind my flat had collapsed.
We went out into the neighbourhood and the photos show the turbulance through which the city went through.
The next photo was taken of a road behind the Muncipality building and it looks like a river. But if you zoom in you can see a vehicle rushing through the road flooded with water.
The next picture shows the force of the strong wind as it had cropped the trees on the sidewalks. These photos are symbolic as they show the entrance to the Muscat Muncipality Building blocked bya fallen tree.
More news from various sources :
Cyclone Gonu had obviously churned Oman's coast on Wednesday with strong winds and continuous rains, forcing thousands nearly 20000 from their homes. Authorities have shut down oil installations The storms are a rarity in the Middle East as continuous rainfall and howling winds are rarely seen in the desert like seaside capital. Raging seas with 20 meter high waves prevented tankers from sailing from Omani ports, effectively shutting down the country's oil exports and global oil prices are increasing. Authorities also closed all operations at the port of Sohar and evacuated 11,000 workers. A few ships were sailing through the nearby Strait of Hormuz despite 6-foot swells and strong winds. About one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the narrow waterway at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
The storm was 200 miles north of Muscat now, moving north through the Gulf of Oman. The storm has weakened and had maximum sustained winds of about 70 mph — slightly below hurricane strength and much lower than the wind speeds that were record earlier.
12 people have been reported to be dead yesterday in Oman. A 3 storied building with few people were washed away by flash floods in Wadi Adai and one of the dead was an Indian. Few people are missing and may have been washed out into the nearby sea.
In Muscat violent waves continued to crash the shore. The main highway is broken at Qurum and in Seeb as the floods damaged the roads. Al khuwair round about was flooded at night. Seeb Airport is still closed on the second day.
Oman's eastern provinces have been cut off, with heavy rains making the roads unusable and communication lines severed.When we went out people were rushing into shops for food supplies. The shop keepers predicted shortages of milk and essential items due to supply lines being inoperative
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