Cyclone Mekunu lashes Oman, Yemen

Five people, including a 12-year-old girl, died in Oman. Pic/AP

Cyclone Mekunu blew into the Arabian Peninsula yesterday, drenching arid Oman and Yemen, cutting off power lines and leaving at least five dead and 40 missing, officials said.

Portions of Salalah, Oman's third-largest city, lost electricity as the cyclone made landfall. The Arabian Sea churned on Saturday, sending mounds of sea foam into the air.

Five people, including a 12-year-old girl, died in Oman, and 40 others are missing from the Yemeni island of Socotra, which earlier took the storm's brunt, police said. Yemenis, Indians and Sudanese were among those missing on the Arabian Sea isle and officials feared some may be dead. India's Meteorological Department said the storm packed maximum sustained winds of 170-180 kilometers per hour with gusts of up to 200 kph. It called the cyclone "extremely severe."

Across Salalah, branches and leaves littered the streets. Several underpasses became standing lakes. Electrical workers began trying to repair lines in the city while police and soldiers in SUVs patrolled the streets.

Omani forecasters warned Salalah and the surrounding area would get at least 200 millimeters of rain, over twice the city's annual downfall. Authorities remained worried about flash flooding in the area's valleys and potential mudslides down its nearby cloud-shrouded mountains.

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