Death toll in Cyclone Shaheen now 13 as storm churns in Oman
Dubai, Oct 4: The death toll from Cyclone Shaheen rose to 13 on Monday while other fishermen from Iran remained missing as the storm moved further inland into Oman and weakened.
Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when floodwaters swept him away from his vehicle. On Sunday as the storm made landfall, they said a child similarly drowned and two foreigners from Asia died in a landslide. The country's National Committee for Emergency Management announced Monday afternoon seven additional deaths from the storm, without elaborating.
In Iran, the state-run IRNA news agency said rescuers found the bodies of two of five fishermen who went missing off Pasabandar, a fishing village near the Islamic Republic's border with Pakistan. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian deputy parliament speaker Ali Nikzad said he feared as many as six fishermen had been killed because of the cyclone.
Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province also saw 122 people go to the hospital Sunday after a dust storm spun up by the cyclone caused them to suffer from eye, heart and lung problems, said Abbasali Arjmandi, the governor of the city of Zabol. Eighteen needed to be hospitalised for further care, he said.
India's Meteorological Department, the top forecasters for cyclones that sweep across the Indian Ocean, said winds from Shaheen now gust up to 90 kph (55 mph) and would continue to weaken. It predicted the storm would weaken into a tropical depression in the coming hours. Shaheen made landfall with winds reaching up to 150 kph (93 mph).
Omani state television broadcast images of flooded roadways and valleys as the storm churned deeper into the sultanate, its outer edges reaching the neighboring United Arab Emirates. The Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, had issued warnings to residents that the storm was coming. Winds had picked up in the country from Sunday, sweeping across the grounds of Dubai's newly opened Expo 2020.
A cyclone is the same as a hurricane or a typhoon; their names only change because of their location. Hurricanes are spawned east of the international date line. Typhoons develop west of the line. They are known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia.
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Gujarat govt to provide new PNG connections to hotels, hostels, educational institutes
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Gujarat government has decided to provide new PNG (piped natural gas) connections to restaurants, hotels, educational and socio-religious institutions located in areas where the pipeline distribution network is available, if they apply for the facility.
The decision was taken on Friday at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. The meeting reviewed the status of PNG and petroleum products in the state in the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in West Asia, which has severely disrupted global energy supplies.
"The CM took an important decision that in the areas of the state where pipeline network for city gas distribution is available, restaurants, hotels, educational and socio-religious institutions demanding new PNG connections will be given the same with immediate effect as per their needs," stated an official release.
The meeting was informed that a sufficient quantity of natural gas supply was currently available in the state for citizens who get gas through pipelines for domestic use, it said.
The government on Thursday insisted that adequate stocks of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and PNG are available in the state for domestic consumption despite the evolving geopolitical situation in West Asia, from where India imports a large share of its energy products.
Continuous monitoring is being carried out by the Centre and state authorities to ensure uninterrupted supply and distribution of LPG cylinders across Gujarat, it had said.
