MANDVI, June 15 (AFP): Howling gales and crashing waves pounded the coastline of India and Pakistan on Thursday, hours before the landfall of a powerful cyclone that has prompted mass evacuations.
More than 175,000 people have fled the predicted path of Cyclone Biparjoy, which means "disaster" in Bengali, with Indian meteorologists warning it could devastate homes and tear down power lines when it lands around 1200 GMT.
The United States' Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast the eye of the cyclone would hit the coast of India's Gujarat state, before tracking northeast into Pakistan's Sindh province.
Powerful winds and storm surges were forecast to hammer a 325-kilometre (200-mile) stretch of coast between the megacity of Karachi in Pakistan and the Gujarat coastal settlement of Mandvi.
Jayantha Bhai, a 35-year-old shopkeeper in the beach town, told AFP on Thursday he was afraid for his family's safety.
"This is the first time I've experienced a cyclone," said Bhai, a father of three boys aged between eight and 15, who planned to wait out the cyclone in his small concrete home behind the shop. "This is nature, we can't fight with it," he said as driving rain lashed his home.
Low-lying roads started to flood on Thursday afternoon after hours of rainfall. Gusting winds earlier blew sheets of water that reduced visibility to a dull grey mist.
Almost all shops were closed, and shoppers had crowded the few that remained open to buy last-minute food and water supplies.
India's Meteorological Department predicted the "very severe" storm would hit near the Indian port of Jakhau on Thursday evening, warning of "total destruction" of traditional mud and straw thatched homes.
