Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
A rare tropical cyclone, named CHAPALA hit Yemeni island of Socotra on Monday, which has killed at least 3 islanders and injuring hundreds of people.
“Three people were killed, around 100 have been injured and hundreds of families were forced to leave their homes in coastal regions for the mountains,” a local official said.
Socotra is located in the Arabian Sea and slightly larger than Majorca or Rhode Island, is known for hundreds of exotic plant species found nowhere else on earth.
There are around 50,000 residents mostly fishermen speak their own language. Many residents took shelter in schools and caves.
The cyclone is approaching the seafronts of al Qaeda-held Mukalla, a main sea port and the capital city of the Hadhramaut coastal region in Yemen.
Strong winds hit and high waves flooded in the southeast Yemen, as well as the Belhaf gas terminal in Shabwa province, according to officials and residents.
“The sea water level has risen by 9m (29ft) and has destroyed the Mukalla seafront,” one of the residents said.
The World Meteorological Organisation of UN described the cyclone as “extremely severe”, and sea conditions around the centre of the storm were “phenomenal”.
