Cyclone Biparjoy: Lifeguards Deployed to Juhu Beach in Mumbai; Evacuation underway in Gujarat

India

New Delhi: High tidal waves hit Mumbai’s Juhu beach on Tuesday as Cyclone Biparjoy made further progress to make landfall near the port of Jakhau in the Kutch district off Gujarat’s coast. Lifeguards were deployed at Juhu Beach to ensure that the public did not venture into the sea.

Cyclone Biparjoy: Gujarat evacuates people along coast, Mumbai on alert

With Cyclone Biparjoy approaching and likely to make landfall near the port of Jakhau in the Kutch district off Gujarat’s coast, evacuation efforts will be stepped up on Tuesday, with the government aiming to evacuate people within 10km of the coast to evacuate.
Authorities in the coastal districts of Kutch, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Morbi have started relocating those living near the coastline. They said thousands of people living in areas within 10 km of the coast will be moved to safer places from Tuesday.
“VSCS (Very Severe Cyclonic Storm) Biparjoy was centered at 0230 IST of June 13, 2023 over the northeast and adjacent east-central Arabian Sea approximately 290 km southwest of Porbandar and 360 km southwest of Jakhau Port. To cross Saurashtra and Kutch near Jakhau Port by the evening of June 15 as a VSCS,” the Meteorological Department of India (IMD) said in its latest message.
Assistant Commissioner Alok Pandey told reporters that the government is constantly working to ensure there are no deaths from the weather phenomenon.
Pandey said the rescue operation will be carried out in two phases from Tuesday, with people living 0 to 5 km from the coast being moved first.
After that, people living within 5 to 10 km of the coast will be moved to safer places, with priority given to children, pregnant women and the elderly.
A total of 12 teams from both the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed to the districts likely to be affected by the cyclone and arrangements have been made for shelter, food and medicine for the evacuees people.
At a high-level meeting in New Delhi on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked senior officers to take all possible measures to ensure that people living in vulnerable locations are safely evacuated by the state government, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said. (PMO). .