Oman: The Aftermath of Cyclone Phet · Global Voices
Riyadh Al Balushi

Oman was hit a few days ago by cyclone Phet, a tropical cyclone originating from the Indian Ocean. This is the second major cyclone to hit Oman after Cyclone Gonu three years ago. Unlike Gonu, Oman and its people were more prepared for the cyclone this time around, but the city of Sur, which was directly hit by Phet, still suffered serious damages. The cyclone reached the capital city of Muscat, but the damages were nominal in comparison.
Blogger Undercover Dragon reports wrote a detailed report on the impact of Phet on the country, the deaths, the infrastructure, communications, and even the production of oil and gas:
In the end, at least as far as Muscat is concerned, Cyclone Phet was nowhere near as nasty as Gonu, neither in duration, wind speed, rain nor impact. For the town of Sur it was probably worse, as Sur was directly under the eye of the storm as it grazed the eastern most tip of Oman. Sur had a record of over 40cm of water recorded. The town was mostly underwater by Friday pm.
While a lot of accidents took place because of the storm itself, many more accidents happened because of people's carelessness and improper curiosity to explore the dangerous newly formed wadis (valleys). Interesting comments were made on Dhofari Gucci‘s blog on this topic as the Royal Oman Police decided to take action against all those who took unreasonable risks in relation to the aftermath of the crisis:
Evidently the ROP (see above image if you can read Arabic – was published in today's newspapers) will be questioning people who put themselves and others in danger by going into wadis or even going to ‘stare’ (the ultimate Omani hobby). According to my fellow blogger Reality, an ROP officer drowned trying to save a kid who was ‘swimming’ in a wadi. I SALUTE THE ROP FOR DOING THIS.
It is scary to think that cyclones will become a regular thing for Oman as a victim of global warming. We hope it won't.
You can see many pictures of the aftermath of Phet on the blogs of Omanizer, Dhofar Gucci, and Kishor Cariappa.