Powerful Cyclone Mekunu leaves at least 1 dead, 40 missing in Oman and Yemen
SALALAH, May 26 : Cyclone Mekunu blew into the Arabian Peninsula early Saturday, drenching arid Oman and Yemen with rain, cutting off power lines and leaving at least one dead and 40 missing, officials said.
Portions of Salalah, Oman’s third-largest city, lost electricity as the cyclone made landfall. The Arabian Sea angrily churned Saturday morning, sending mounds of sea foam into the air. The waves ate into one tourist beach, pulling hunks of it away and toppling thatch umbrellas cemented into the sand.
As Mekunu barreled overhead, the eye of the storm provided a moment’s respite. At one luxury hotel, which already had evacuated its guests, workers sat down early for a traditional “suhoor,” a meal Muslims eat before sunrise during the holy fasting month of Ramadan. They laughed and shared plates by flashlight in a darkened ballroom, the cyclone’s wind a dull roar behind their clatter.
At least one person, a 12-year-old girl, died in Oman and 40 others are missing from the Yemeni island of Socotra, which earlier took the storm’s brunt, police said. Yemenis, Indians and Sudanese were among those missing on the Arabian Sea isle and officials feared some may be dead.
Director of Meteorology at the UAE weather center, Mohamad Al-Ebri, told Arab News on Friday that the cyclone is expected to reach the southern coast of Oman within the next 12 hours, however it is possible that by then the cyclone category would have gone down to level one again.
India’s Meteorological Department said the storm packed maximum sustained winds of 170-180 kilometers (105-111 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 200 kph (124 mph). It called the cyclone “extremely severe.”
Many holidaymakers fled the storm Thursday night before Salalah International Airport closed. The Port of Salalah — a key gateway for the country — also closed, its cranes secured against the pounding rain.
James Hewitson, general manager of the five-star hotel Al-Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara, told Arab News they were expecting the situation to worsen over the coming days.
“The wind has picked up since this morning.”
He said the hotel staff were preparing for the worst outcome, ensuring there was enough fuel to power the generators, should the main electricity supply be cut.
“We have taken all precautions in terms of securing all areas of the building to keep our guests safe,” Hewitson explained.
He said the hotel was well stocked for food and water and that at least one of the restaurants would remain open.
“We have about 50 guests staying with us at the moment,” Hewitson told Arab News. “Some are leaving tonight, some have chosen to leave and we are offering to compensate them with our sister hotels across Oman”
“At the end of today I expect I will have something between 40 to 50 guests staying… We have 250 staff members.”
He explained that representatives from the Ministry of Tourism had visited in the morning.
“We have already taken down our outdoors furniture, and anything that is not bolted down has been put away so that the winds don’t blow them into anyone and hurt people like glass tables or umbrellas.”
And he added that Muscat civil defense had sent a team to support in Salalah. “We have taken all precautions in terms of securing all areas of the building to keep our guests safe.”
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Jaishankar concludes Trinidad visit; highlights cultural links, development partnerships
Port of Spain (PTI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted India's close cultural and historical ties with Trinidad and Tobago as he concluded his visit to the Caribbean nation with a series of engagements focused on diaspora outreach and development cooperation.
Jaishankar on Saturday interacted with members of the Indian community and underlined the “special bonds” shared with the Girmitya community, descendants of Indian indentured labourers who had migrated to the Caribbean during the colonial era.
"Concluded my visit with an interaction with the Indian community. Underlined the special bonds with the Girmitya community and discussed nurturing it further," he said in a social media post.
Jaishankar said India is a “reliable and trusted partner”, responsive to the needs and aspirations of Trinidad and Tobago.
According to the website of the Indian High Commission here, approximately 143,000 indentured workers from the Indian subcontinent migrated to Trinidad between 1845 and 1917. A vast majority of these Indian emigrants came from northern India and Bihar.
The descendants of those indentured workers, now in their fifth or sixth generation, form nearly 40-45 per cent of the total population of 1.36 million (as of 2024), constituting an integral part of the country's economic, political, and social fabric, it states.
Jaishankar had arrived in Port of Spain from Paramaribo on Friday on the concluding leg of his three-nation tour of Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, aimed at deepening India’s engagement with the Caribbean nations.
Earlier on Saturday, Jaishankar visited the Dattatreya Mandir, where he offered prayers for the well-being of the people and for stronger India-Trinidad and Tobago relations.
The Dattatreya Mandir is a prominent Hindu temple in central Trinidad known for housing an 85-foot statue of Lord Hanuman.
In another post on X, the minister described his interaction with the Indo-Trinbagonian community in South Trinidad as a “home away from home”.
“A real pleasure to be among the Indo-Trinbagonian community in South Trinidad. The kinship was expressed in so many ways. And the affection, in even more,” he said, while thanking Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the experience.
Jaishankar also launched a permanent prosthetics centre in Penal town jointly with Persad-Bissessar, following the success of India's Jaipur Foot camp in the country that benefited over 800 persons with disabilities.
The Jaipur Foot is a low-cost prosthetic limb initiative that has helped thousands of differently-abled people across the world regain mobility.
Describing the prosthetics centre as a “people-centric project”, Jaishankar, in a social media post, said it is a "gift of mobility and dignity for Trinidad and the wider CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market) region."
