Muscat, May 26: Cyclone Mekunu which hit Oman’s coastal province of Dhofar claimed at least two lives and unleashed widespread destruction in the sultanate.
On Friday, a 12-year-old girl died after wind swept her against a wall. A second citizen died on Saturday after his vehicle drifted away in Dhofar, Omani police said on Twitter.
The police called on residents “to stay indoors” as the cyclone hit southern Oman with high winds and rains.
Thousands of residents near coastal areas in Dhofar and al-Wusta had been moved to shelters as winds and torrential rain hammered the region, officials said.
According to civil defense authorities, about 10,000 people had been evacuated from schools and government buildings.
Streets are largely empty in the Omani coastal city of Salalah ahead of Cyclone Mekunu's expected landfall there this weekend.
Heavy rains and strong winds are already lashing the city. Standing water covered some roads on Friday, causing at least one car to hydroplane and flip over.
There was a sizable police presence on the road, many Royal Oman Police SUVs with chicken wire over the windows. The Port of Salalah has been closed, its cranes secured as rain pounded them.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall early on Saturday near Salalah, Oman's third-largest city and home to some 200,000 people.
Authorities in Oman have opened up local schools in the city of Salalah to shelter those whose homes are at risk as Cyclone Mekunu heads to the shores of Oman.
About 600 people, mostly labourers, gathered on Friday at the city's West Salalah School as torrential rains poured down. Some slept on mattresses on the floors of classrooms, where math and English lesson posters hung on the walls.
On Thursday, the cyclone hit the Yemeni island of Socotra, killing at least seven people with several others reported missing. The Yemeni government has declared the island a disaster zone.
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