AHMEDABAD/ISLAMABAD – Heavy rains have struck the coastal areas of India and Pakistan along the Arabian Sea, flooding cities in Gujarat, western India, and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. Authorities are predicting the formation of a cyclonic storm by Friday.
Footage from Reuters television showed people wading through waist-deep water that partially submerged vehicles and roads in some areas of the state.
Officials reported that at least 28 people have died this week in Gujarat due to rain-related incidents, while meteorologists in both India and Pakistan have warned of more heavy rainfall and strong winds expected along the coast.
“There has been no electricity for the last two days,” said Prabhu Ram Soni, a resident of Jamnagar, a coastal city in Gujarat. “I have an eight-month-old daughter and a mother with asthma who relies on oxygen support.”
Disaster management authorities stated that more than 18,000 people have been evacuated since Sunday from coastal cities. The army has been involved in relief efforts in Gujarat, which was also affected by Cyclone Biparjoy last year, resulting in significant damage and the evacuation of over 180,000 people.
Jamnagar, which hosts the world’s largest oil refinery complex owned by Reliance, was also heavily hit by rain, according to district collector B K Pandya. In nearby Vadinar, Nayara Energy, which is backed by Russian entities including Rosneft, operates another refinery.
“They are operational,” Pandya said when asked if the rainfall had impacted refinery operations, adding that the authorities were focusing on rescue operations in the district.
The India Meteorological Department reported that a deep depression off the coast of Gujarat is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by Friday, although it is expected to move away from the Indian coast over the next two days.
In Pakistan, the weather department has advised fishermen to avoid going out to sea until Saturday.
The IMD has also predicted extremely heavy rainfall in Gujarat’s Bharuch, Kutch, and Saurashtra districts on Friday.
Heavy rains have also caused flash floods in Karachi, a neighboring Pakistani port city, resulting in power outages, according to media reports.
Pakistani authorities have warned of possible flash floods in two districts in the southern province of Sindh, which is still recovering from the devastating floods of 2022 that submerged large areas of the country and impacted the economy.
