His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik on Saturday directed to provide everything that would preserve the safety of citizens and residents during the Sultanate’s exposure to the effects of the tropical situation, Shaheen.
This came during the emergency meeting of the National Committee for Emergency Management, headed by the Inspector General of Police and Customs.
During the meeting, the recommendations of the sub-committees of the National Committee for Emergency Management situations in the governorates, and the preparedness and readiness efforts undertaken by the main and supportive parties involved in dealing with the tropical situation and its expected effects, were discussed.
A review of the readiness of the efforts made by the sectors of the system to implement the national plan to confront the effects of the tropical situation and the measures taken to reduce potential risks, maintain public safety and reduce material losses.
LANDFALL
Shaheen is the first time a tropical cyclone is expected to make a landfall on North Al Batinah in more than 100 years. The last time North Al Batinah faced a tropical cyclone was in June 1890.
On Saturday night the centre of the tropical cyclone was 200 km from Muscat and the closest convective clouds band associated with the cyclone is about 150 km.
“It is moving quite fast and the flow of clouds continues with scattered rain of varying intensity on the coastal areas, as the tropical cyclone continues to move towards the coast of the Sea of Oman, where the cyclone’s movement reached 14 km per/hr and the speed around the centre is 64 to 75 knots’’, said Dr Said al Sarmi, Meteorologist from National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre.
Tropical cyclone, Shaheen, continues to move towards the coastal areas of Sea of Oman, is moving westwards and by Sunday morning is expected to head towards North Al Batinah and make a landfall.
Latest satellite images and weather charts analysis at the National Multi-Hazards Early Warning Centre indicates that the tropical cyclone Shaheen located at longitude 61.8 degrees East and latitude 24.2 degrees North. Moving towards the Arabian Sea the cyclone is maintaining an estimated surface wind speed around the centre between 64 to 75 knots.
The indirect effects began on Saturday morning in South Al Sharqiyah with high swells reported in Ras Al Hadd, Qalhat and Sur in Sharqiyah as well as high waves across Muttrah sea front and rough seas across Oman Sea Coast line.
EMERGENCY TEAMS
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has confirmed the readiness of all health institutions to deal with any emergency condition. The ministry is providing health services in the governorates during the adverse climatic condition, as well as providing all the needs for the health institutions in terms of human resources, medical devices, medicines and other logistics services.
The ministry represented by the Emergency and Crisis Management Centre is closely monitoring the developments in coordination with the National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre. The ministry has formed a task team to activate the national health emergency plan at the central level in the governorates.
