India, Pakistani coasts on high alert a day before Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall

By AJIT SOLANKI, SIBI ARASU and MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

MANDVI, India (AP) — The coastal regions of India and Pakistan are on high alert with tens of thousands being evacuated a day before Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall. At a relief camp for displaced people in the Pakistani village of Gharo in Sindh province, Allah Noor said soldiers came and evacuated them amid a strong windstorm. In Kutch, in India’s Gujarat state, where the cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday, 57-year-old boat owner and businessman Adam Karim Dhobi said this was the worst storm he’d seen since 1998. The India Meteorological Department says the cyclone was packing maximum sustained winds of up to 145 kilometers per hour, or 90 mph, on Wednesday.