Gonu II fears continue to boost water sales

Well, I guess the Met Office could do to improve its communications with the ordinary citizens. Supermarkets again today are seeing huge demand for bottled water and Pharmacies for medicines as people stock up in expectation of a storm. As I've said, that's probably not a bad idea generally. People are rightly worried, and most I guess can't watch the sat picture for themselves via the net. As of now there is no sign at all of anything on the sat pic. But a decent front page story giving the reasons why the met office can be so confident might help the less sophisticated members of society to avoid listening to the astrologers and other wackos.

Just remember if you are taking the time to build an emergency kit (see earlier post) to regularly replace expired items (like water and food). A lot of the key long term stuff you can put in plastic zip lock bags or labled garbage bags and pack into a large plastic bin with a lid, and keep it in a store room safe for when you might need it. Print off a list of the other items so you can run through a check list and not forget anything at the last minute.

Todays story in Times of Oman: Relief as Met office allays fears of cyclone

Sunday, May 25, 2008 1:15:38 AM Oman Time
MUSCAT — The Directorate-General of Meteorology and Air Navigation has reassured residents of Oman that there is no weather event of significance that could affect the Sultanate on May 27, as was reported by some local newspapers last week.

The Directorate-General has also said that it is constantly monitoring weather activities over the Arabian Sea using satellite imagery, numerical weather products and observation data.

The Dubai Meteorological Office is also not forecasting a tropical storm for the region and forecasters say they have not received any advisory from the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre which monitors the world’s oceans for such events.

“We have been seeing some unsettled weather in Socotra Island in southeast of Yemen. There’s some cloud and thunderstorms there which could be triggering the other warning, but nothing we would recognise as a tropical storm,” a forecaster said.

However, the Met office would be “keeping an eye on developments”, he added.