A storm is coming, but when?

A storm is coming, but when?

It's a little after 22:40 local Pakistan time. Karachi, where I am situated, is braced for Tropical Cyclone Phet. It's due to hit the coast of Karachi in the next 20 minutes or so.

The streets here are deserted. Karachi is a late night city, but this Sunday evening you can hear a pin drop.

Along the coast though it's different picture: Throughout the day, hundreds of people have come to the seafront to see for themselves exactly what is going on.

One man I spoke to says he has been hearing of a cyclone hitting Karachi every year for the last 20 years. "But every time, we see nothing. Let's hope God is on our side this time as well."

God and good planning, it would seem. The city's authorities have been battling it out to make sure that the city survives anything the weather can throw at it.

They seem to have done a good job. Karachi's main defence against severe rain is its system of storm drains, which take in the water from the city and flush it out into the sea.

For years they have been clogged up with rubbish. Simply put, clogged drains means flooded streets.

But the authorities have got the storm drains clear - well, most of them at least. They also pulled down billboards so they don't fall down due to severe wind, and have evacuated tens of thousands of people from remote low-lying areas.

But that's Karachi. In Baluchistan, where the storm already hit, mud houses have been washed away, roads turned into mudslides, and bridges have collapsed.

Three brigades of the army have been deployed and have managed to keep some sort of order; aid and rescue efforts are able to continue.

Thanks to the preparedness of the Pakistanis, this cyclone has not wreaked the kind of havoc that we have seen from other storms. But it's not over yet.

The met office here predicts heavy rains for up to 36 hours. If that happens, then Karachi could come to a standstill. But as I look out of my hotel window, there is no rain and no wind.

Has Karachi survived? That's the question.