SANAA, 28 December 2004 — Yemen and neighboring Oman were on alert yesterday, warning people not to venture out to sea after high waves caused by the massive earthquake in Asia caused damage along the coastline.
Yemeni authorities warned fishermen to stay out of the water after three fishermen were injured on Sunday in the southeast Maharah region when five-meter high waves struck the coast, the official SABA news agency reported.
In the southern port city of Aden, several houses were damaged by high waves, a source in the local authority said.
Fishing boats and large quantities of already caught fish were also lost in the rough seas, SABA reported.
Oman, meanwhile, warned of a tidal wave possibly developing around its coast as a result of the deadly earthquake off Indonesia, newspapers reported yesterday.
“The Omani coast witnessed increasing wave heights owing to the earthquake in Asia,” said an Omani police statement.
“The phenomena led to high tides which endangered coastal areas, ports, boats and vessels,” it added, appealing to residents and in particular fishermen to be wary.
A British adventurer attempting to be the first person to paddle Oman’s vast coastline said yesterday he had suspended his bid as high waves triggered by the massive quake in Asia battered the coast.
“We went to a beach in Seeb (a suburb of Muscat) to resume the voyage this morning only to find that the sea was too wild,” Mark Evans, a 44-year-old geography teacher from West Sussex, England, said.
The coasts of Oman and Yemen occupy the eastern and southern edges of the Arabian Peninsula respectively, on the Arabian Sea which opens out into the Indian Ocean.
