Death toll in Iran from cyclone climbs to 25
Pastor Dale Morgan
Death toll in Iran from cyclone climbs to 25*
10 Jun 2007 18:00:09 GMT
Source: Reuters
TEHRAN, June 10 (Reuters) - Flooding caused by Cyclone Gonu which swept
southern Iran last week killed 25 people and caused damage estimated at
more than $200 million, a senior official was quoted as saying on Sunday.
The hurricane damaged villages in the coastal provinces of Hormuzgan,
Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan and knocked out electricity and
telecommunications in some areas, officials said. Roads, bridges and
villages were also hit.
"1,850 villages in Sistan-Baluchestan, Kerman and Hormuzgan provinces
are having difficulties receiving aid," Hossein Bagheri, head of the
national disaster organisation, told the web site of Iran's state
broadcaster IRIB.
"In some places the height of the water reached two metres."
IRIB quoted Bagheri as saying 25 people had died, of whom 20 drowned in
villages. Two aid workers were among the dead.
Iranian media on Saturday said 12 people were killed. Cyclone Gonu
killed 49 people in Oman.
Another Iranian official, Abdollah Raisi, said a dam 40 km (25 miles)
north of the town of Nikshahr had been destroyed, the official IRNA news
agency said.
Bagheri said the priority was to provide drinking water to people as
well as to restore power and telecommunications.
"Most of the problems are in the villages of Sistan-Baluchestan," he
said, giving a total damage estimate of 2,000 billion rials (roughly
$216 million).
Gonu had raised fears of a disruption to exports from the Middle East,
origin of more than a quarter of the world's oil. Oil prices rose to
around $71 a barrel on Thursday.
Officials in Iran and Oman have said conditions were gradually returning
to normal.