This October 27, 2014 NASA satellite photo shows Tropical Cyclone Nilofar in the Arabian Sea.

AHMEDABAD: Indian officials were preparing on Monday to evacuate residents and stockpile food as they braced for another “very severe cyclonic storm” due to slam into the country’s west coast and Pakistan.

Cyclone Nilofar, building in the Arabian Sea, is due to hit India’s Gujarat state and Pakistan’s southern coastal areas on Friday morning, the Indian Meterological Department said.

In Pakistan, officials were on alert in case the storm turned toward Sindh province and Karachi.

The National Disaster Management Authority has warned local agencies to take precautionary measures ahead of the cyclone.

Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the open sea from Wednesday to Friday, and those already at sea have been told to come back to shore.

The storm, packing winds of up to 125 kilometers (83 miles) per hour, comes after Cyclone HudHud hit India’s east coast earlier this month leaving some 20 people dead.

The tail end of that cyclone also swept into Nepal causing Himalayan snowstorms that claimed more than 40 lives in the country’s worst trekking disaster.

 
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