​Panic as cyclone hits Yemen week after deadly weather

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Sunday 08 Nov 2015 - 19:43 Makkah mean time-26-1-1437 Sana’a (IINA) -  Cyclone Megh, which formed in the Arabian Sea earlier in the week, has hit Yemen's Socotra Island as it travels west towards the mainland. Heavy winds and rain are currently battering Socotra, Al Jazeera News channel reported, as the cyclone brings further threats of flooding and landslides in an area usually bereft of rain. The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) predicts that Megh will continue its path west, making landfall somewhere between Aden and Mukalla on Tuesday. The eye of the storm is expected to cross the island - which is some 350km off the Yemeni mainland - at approximately 9 GMT, as Megh creeps westwards. "The system is moving very slowly, only at about 20 km/h, which means the islands will also endure a sustained onslaught of rain," she said. This, combined with a storm surge and ferocious waves, is likely to cause a major flooding issue. "The damage caused by Megh is likely to be extensive, particularly for an island which has been hit by a similar cyclone less than a week ago," Gaulter added.More than 50,000 people in Yemen, including about 18,000 on Socotra, were displaced because of Cyclone Chapala. It killed at least five  people and caused widespread damage a week ago as it brushed past Socotra on a similar path from the Arabian Sea.Yemen's fisheries minister Fahd Kavieen, who hails from Socotra himself, urged the United Nations and neighbouring Oman to "urgently intervene with emergency teams to save residents" on the island "which is now facing a cyclone stronger than Chapala," AFP reported. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that many will continue to be affected as Megh bears down on the country as it promised to "address urgent needs and will assess the need for further assistance". HA/IINA