YEMEN has been battered by the biggest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the country, which could bring three years’ worth of rain in one day.
Advertisement
Thousands of people have fled, including people who had sheltered in a hospital, due to the increased dangers of mud and rockslides. There were no reports of casualties.
Mukalla has been mostly controlled by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula since April.
Chapala is believed to be the most powerful storm Yemen has seen in decades.
Images posted on social media showed heavy floods hitting the streets of Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramawt, bringing further misery to Yemenis already beset by poverty and rampant unrest.
The UN Office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), said Chapala originated in the Indian Ocean on 28 October and intensified during the following days to category 4.
Dr. Mohammed Atiq Al Falahi, ERC’s Secretary-General, said that the ERC launched the humanitarian programme targeting those affected in an effort to alleviate their suffering following the severe damage that the cyclone has caused on the island. “Some residents had to leave their homes and escape to higher areas where flooding was less”.
Yemen’s Fisheries Minister Fahd Kafain told the AFP news agency that Chapala had caused “enormous” damage and that he feared there would be fatalities.
A cyclone with hurricane-force winds made landfall on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast on Tuesday, flooding the country’s fifth-largest city, Mukalla, and sending thousands of people fleeing for shelter.
Residents said the seafront promenade and many homes had been destroyed by the cyclone, called Chapala, and officials in the dry hinterland province of Shabwa said about 6,000 people had moved to higher ground.
Aid flights rushed food and tents to the Yemeni island of Socotra, local officials said on Wednesday, after it was hit by a rare cyclone the United Nations said has displaced 40,000 people there and on the mainland.
Advertisement
More than 200 people were injured and dozens of houses and hamlets were severely damaged or washed away, said Mr Salem Zaher, mayor of the island’s main district Hadibo.
