Villages in Iran flooded in wake of Cyclone Gonu

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

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Perilous Times and Global Warming

Villages in Iran flooded in wake of Cyclone Gonu*

POSTED: 1754 GMT (0154 HKT), June 8, 2007

Story Highlights
• Cyclone remnants flood dozens of tiny villages in Iran
• People living in trees, tents, school auditoriums
• Cyclone Gonu killed dozens in Oman
• Omani town of Muscat hit by torrents of mud, rain

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Floods spawned by the remnants of Cyclone Gonu
stranded dozens of tiny villages in the deserts of southern Iran on
Friday, cutting off roads, power and communications and sending some
residents into trees for safety.

Water encircled more than 100 villages deep in Kerman Province, where
many residents subsist on livestock and small farm plots in villages
consisting of a handful of families.

Lt. Siamak Miladi, a police commander in the town of Kalaganj, said
rescue workers were expected to reach many villages by helicopter Saturday.

"Power and telephone lines were affected by the flood there, so we do
not have any access to them for the time being," he told The Associated
Press in a telephone interview.

Flooding also swamped dozens of villages in neighboring Sistan and
Baluchistan province, where the state news agency said some inhabitants
had climbed up onto treetops.

The floodwaters drove out the residents of Shahrestan village, near the
port city of Chabahar, according to the official Islamic Republic News
Agency.

"Some of them are living in trees," villager Slamcq Hood told IRNA.
"Since the beginning of the storm on Wednesday we have not received any
relief assistance."

The report quoted Ebrahim Hood, another local in the village, as saying
that, "Children, old people and women will lose their life if the
assistance does not arrive."

Iran's meteorological office said the storm had become a high-pressure
system creating rainshowers and wind in southeastern Iran.

State television said the flooding had damaged roads, farms and
buildings in that part of the country and relief supplies were being
shipped to some remote villages by helicopters.

Video footage showed people taking their belongings to higher ground,
and said hundreds were living in tents in the port town of Konarak. It
also said regular flights to the town's airport had restarted.

In Bandar Abbas, Iran's main non-oil port, some people were living in
school auditoriums, where they moved during the storm, but life
otherwise was normal, the report said.

State television said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had
spoken by phone with his Omani counterpart, Yussef bin Alavi, and
offered help for stricken areas in Oman.

Gonu's rains sent torrents of water and mud surging through Oman's
seaside capital, Muscat. At least 35 people were dead, most of them in
Oman, and 30 were missing. (Watch flooded streets, damaged buildings in
Muscat Video)

The storm spared the region's oil installations, and oil futures fell
Friday on a wave of profit-taking that followed a surge in prices a day
earlier. News that Cyclone Gonu had spared major oil installations in
the Gulf of Oman also alleviated supply concerns.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell 62 cents to $66.31 U.S. a
barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after
dropping as low as $65.55 early in the session.

At least 32 Gonu-related death were reported in Oman, including members
of police rescue squads, and 30 others were reported missing, police
said. Rescue teams were searching for victims using helicopters and
boats, he said.

Iranian state TV's Web site said two government workers taking emergency
supplies to a flooded area were killed Wednesday when a river overflowed
and flipped their truck in Jask. A third Iranian died in Bandar Abbas
from a car accident blamed on low visibility from the bad weather, state
TV said.

More than 20,000 people were evacuated Wednesday from their homes in
Oman and were provided with government dwellings stocked with food,
water, medicine and other supplies