Cyclone Phet – will she or won’t she??

Three years ago on the 6th June were hit with the tail end of cyclone Gonu and it left us without power and water for days. The flooding was extensive as shown in my previous blog here. We were the lucky ones!

For the last 24 hours there has been talk of another cyclone. Now to be honest since Gonu there is a certain level of panic that spreads throughout Muscat when the clouds come over so I tend to be a bit ho-hum, but this time I am watching her move up the coast and I think that we will get some heavy rain but hopefully not to the extent of three years ago. She is due to turn before actually reaching us and head over to Pakistan.

This morning I had to duck around to the shop for some yoghurts for the kids. When I got there I saw queues of people getting water etc and it made me think that maybe I had missed an update?? I left my basket as I knew it would take a long time to get through and all I wanted was a few things and I headed to our little local store. I was surprised to see a wall of boxed water out the front and cars backing up to load up on boxes…

By lunch time I decided I had better go out and stock up on UHT milk, water, bread, batteries and some canned foods … just in case ;-) Usually I have heaps of this stuff but as our kitchen is temporarily in our hallway I have been trying to keep as little as possible.

Yes my friends, I was NOT ALONE! Carrefour in Qurum was heaving and the shelves with the basic essentials were quickly becoming bare. This is the water area. Bear in mind that it is recommended not to drink tap water here so we all buy bottled water but usually this is full as most of use have our water delivered.

The lines for the cashier weaved their way down the aisles. But it was not too bad I made it through in about 25 minutes. Yes all my foreign friends MEN SHOPPING LOL, it is pretty common here.

I managed to pick up what I needed and headed home only to see these trucks waiting to unload their water in the loading dock.

So who knows maybe I am underestimating Miss Phet? I hope not. My darling husband has just arrived home early so he can seal up our windows. Because we don’t get too much rain here the houses are not built for it and we get lots of leaking through the windows!

Keep safe and well all my Muscat friends, thanks for stopping by …

POST NOTE Friday 4th June - all is well, a little wet. Schools have been closed until Monday as precaution - Whaaaaaaa , and although she has not turned yet we in Muscat have not had the high winds etc.