Cyclone Gonu Threating Iran

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Cyclone Gonu kills 12 in Iran, Gulf toll 61


Twelve people have been killed in southeastern Iran in flash floods caused by Cyclone Gonu as the death roll across Gulf region following the fury mounted to 61.

According Farzad Panahi, head of Iran's emergency services, the cyclone caused flash floods in Hormozgan and Sistan-Balochistan provinces in Iran damaging about 70 per cent of the residential houses in the town of Jask, Xinhua reported.

Panahi warned of sanitary and health problems due to shortage of clean water.

Oman's official news agency ONA reported that Gonu, which hit the sultanate this week before moving towards Iran, killed at least 49 people and left 27 missing in Oman.

The UAE-based Gulf newspaper cited an Omani police source as saying that some 20,000 people were affected by cyclone Gonu, which caused major damage in the country before moving towards the coast of Iran and Pakistan, RIA Novosti said.

Police and rescuers were continuing the search for those missing. The government estimates the cost of the storm damage at billions of dollars. It has launched a nationwide relief effort to help the victims of the natural disaster.

Gonu, which reached its maximum force on Tuesday and faded to a category one storm on Wednesday, moved along Oman's heavily populated coast, sweeping through its main cities, industrial areas and ports.

Omani authorities said Gonu could be the strongest hurricane to hit Oman's coast since 1977, when at least 500 people were killed by raging storms.

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نجات يكي از كودكان در رودخانه گل آلود منطقه جنوب كشور به علت طوفان گونو

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Death toll from Cyclone Gonu rises to 61


Residents of deep southern Iran reported massive devastation in some small desert villages, with one man saying every house in his hometown had been swept away by floods.


"Twelve people have been killed and nine injured as a result of Cyclone Gonu battering southern Iran," Farzad Panahi, the head of National Emergency Relief Committee, said on state radio. He did not provide details.

Iranian officials had reported three previous deaths, with one person killed in a car crash due to low visibility and two government workers drowned in a truck overturned by floodwaters. The 12 total figure appeared to include those three.

The storm killed at least 49 in Oman with more than two dozen others missing and feared dead.

In Iran, the floodwaters drove out the residents of Shahrestan and Kahir villages, both near the port city of Chabahar, according to state radio.

A Kahir resident said the whole village was washed away by the floods.

"Some 120 families lived here. Not a single house is standing now. People have no refuge to seek protection," he said.

"There is no water, no electricity and no food," the man said as he burst into tears. "No help has reached us."

Pahani said relief operations had started Friday as the storm subsided. He said rescue teams were using helicopters and trucks to send supplies to those affected by the storm.

Hormozgan Province Governor Saheb Mohammadi said almost all roads destroyed by the storm have reopened excluding one road connecting southern Iran to eastern Iran.

"The storm is over. The sea is calm. Excluding one road, all roads have reopened," Mohammadi said on state-run TV.

Iranian officials previously said water had 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.

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, the report said.

Gonu tore through the coast of Oman and southeastern Iran on Wednesday and Thursday. At the height of the storm in Oman, winds swept up to 95 mph (153 kph), according to the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. But the storm was later downgraded to a tropical depression and later a high-pressure system with rain and wind.

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.

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Oil prices slump as cyclone Gonu wanes in the Gulf


Oil prices have fallen by more than $2 a barrel after Cyclone Gonu in the Gulf failed to damage production and amid concerns about higher interest rates.

New York light crude shed $2.17, 3.2%, to $64.76 a barrel, while Brent crude shed $2.62, or 3.7%, to $68.60.

Prices had been pushed higher by fears that the cyclone would dent output from oil producers Oman and Iran, though, it eventually weakened into a rain storm.

At the same time, analysts are worried high rates will slow the world economy.

However, other analysts are predicting the problems in Nigeria, where workers have been kidnapped and production facilities damaged, could underpin prices and stop them falling too far.

On Friday, Lehman Brothers raised its estimates for oil prices in 2007 and 2008.

The Wall Street brokerage said it expects an average price of $62 a barrel this year, and a price of $55 a barrel in 2008.

Cyclone Gonu was the most powerful storm in the Gulf for 60 years

Thousands of residents were evacuated from Oman's coast, and hundreds were also moved from the Iranian coast in order to face up to any contingency.

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توفان گونو در عمان 9/3 ميليارد دلار خسارت وارد كرد


عمان اعلام كرد هزينه خسارت توفان گونو در اوايل ماه جاري ممكن است به 9/3 ميليارد دلار برسد.



به نقل از خبرگزاري فرانسه، وزارت اقتصاد عمان اعلام كرد تحقيقات اوليه نشان مي*دهد اين خسارت بين 25/1 ميليارد ريال (25/3 ميليارد دلار) و 5/1 ميليارد ريال (9/3 ميليارد دلار) است.

بنا بر اين گزارش، خسارت به زيرساخت*هاي اين كشور مي*تواند به يك ميليارد ريال (6/2 ميليارد دلار) مي*رسد.

دستكم 49 نفر هنگامي كه توفان گونو به ساحل عمان، درياي عربي و خليج عمان در روز ششم ژوئن رسيد، كشته شدند و پس از آن وارد ايران شد.

اين بدترين توفان در منطقه به مدت 30 سال است كه هزاران نفر را از خانه*هايشان آواره كرد
.