Interesting times ahead for the Gulf Coast
May Allah smite thee - weather department.
From the
Seattle Post-Intellegencer:
Cyclone forces Oman to evacuate 7,000
A powerful cyclone approaching the oil-rich Persian Gulf area forced the evacuation Monday of nearly 7,000 people from an Omani island, a government official said.
Cyclone Gonu, with winds of 160 miles per hour and gusts of 195 miles per hour, was headed northwest through the Indian Ocean toward Oman's east coast, said Weather Underground meteorologist Tim Roche.
Government authorities started the evacuations from Masira, an island off the east coast of Oman, said General Malik bin Suleiman al-Muamri, head of the country's civil defense.
Oil prices edged upward, though the cyclone was not necessarily the reason, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. Oman's oil reserves and production are small compared to some of its Middle Eastern neighbors.
"I don't know if you can really attribute any of the gain to the cyclone," he said.
The government in neighboring Saudi Arabia issued a statement reassuring its people and the oil markets that it would not be seriously affected by the storm.
The storm was expected to weaken before starting to lash Oman on Tuesday, with winds of 115 mph. The most powerful part of the storm was expected to hit Oman on Thursday before moving north into southern Iran.
Even with the weaker wind speeds, Gonu would be the strongest cyclone to hit the Arabian Peninsula since record keeping started in 1945, Roche said.
Current forecast puts landfall in Iran somewhere around June 7th.
Posted by DaveH at June 4, 2007 9:21 PM