Cyclone Mocha is one of the most powerful cyclones seen in Bangladesh in almost two decades
Dhaka/Cox’s Bazar:
Authorities in Bangladesh launched a massive evacuation operation on Saturday to move some half a million people along its southeastern coastline as a “very dangerous” tropical cyclone threatens the world’s largest Rohingya refugee camp in the country. There is a possibility of coming.
Cyclone Mocha, one of the most powerful cyclones seen in Bangladesh in nearly two decades, is predicted to move towards the Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Sunday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “Cyclone ‘Mocha’ is coming. We have kept cyclone centers and made all kinds of preparations to deal with it.”
The evacuation operation was taken up as the sea port of Cox’s Bazar has been advised to hoist danger signal number 10 as Cyclone Mocha is likely to intensify further and move in a north-northwesterly direction.
Meteorologists said the storm’s path was set to affect Bangladesh’s southeastern border district of Cox’s Bazar, where more than a million Rohingya refugees live.
Bangladeshi authorities have set up 55 shelters on the Bhasan Char offshore island, where some 30,000 Rohingya refugees have been relocated from the mainland.
Bangladesh specifically dedicated Bhasan Char to the Rohingyas, although most of them live in the mainland of Cox’s Bazar, which borders Myanmar.
Most of them fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
“The district administration has converted 576 designated cyclone shelters as well as social, educational and religious institutions into temporary shelters in Cox’s Bazar,” Muhammad Shaheen Imran, deputy commissioner or administrative head of the coastal district, told reporters.
Imran said around 8,600 Red Crescent volunteers have joined a campaign asking people to move, even as the district administration mobilized transport to take them to shelters.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Office in its latest special weather bulletin said “Cyclone Mocha” is moving north-northwest packing winds at a speed of 175 kilometers per hour.
“The cyclone can cause a tidal wave of 8 to 12 feet above the normal tide,” said an official of the meteorological department.
Prime Minister Hasina warned that the cyclone could disrupt electricity and gas supplies and cause water stagnation, especially in coastal areas.
Chief Meteorologist Azizur Rahman said, “This cyclone (Mocha) is the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr of 2007.”
Cyclone Sidr hit the southwest coast of Bangladesh, killing over 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
On Friday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) forecast a storm surge of 2-2.5 meters over the weekend, which was expected to inundate low-lying areas of northern Myanmar as well as parts of Bangladesh, where flash floods and landslides could occur. was also possible.
“This is a very dangerous cyclone and is associated with violent winds. There will be major impacts before and after for potentially hundreds of thousands of the world’s most vulnerable people,” WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis told a press briefing in Geneva.
Meanwhile, thousands of people have been relocated from St. Martin’s Island, which is located about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Tecnauf peninsula.
Inamur Rahman, junior minister for disaster management, said six districts spread along the southern coastline could see severe tidal surges.
Amid drizzle, the city witnessed calm since morning, while residents of low-lying areas of the city and its adjoining areas started moving to cyclone shelters, a journalist in Cox’s Bazar told PTI. Is done.
The town’s Pauro Preparatory High School alone has sheltered more than 200 people from the low-lying Samiti Para area of the beach town, he said.
Shafikul Alam told news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangathan (BSS), “Our house is in low-lying areas while waves are likely to flood the area. So, we have taken shelter here with our children and wife, but still We are scared.” ,
The deputy commissioner said that the cyclonic storm could cause landslides in the hilly areas of the district and work was underway to shift people living in vulnerable places in the foothills to safer places.
Olga Sarrado, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said preparations were being made to partially evacuate the Rohingya refugee camp if needed.
He said the agency was also preparing thousands of hot meals and jerrycans.
Bangladeshi authorities have set up 55 shelters on the Bhasan Char offshore island, where some 30,000 Rohingya refugees have been relocated from the mainland.
Chattogram port has been put on high alert. Docked ships being moved to the outer anchorage.
Sunday’s examination in National University has also been postponed.
The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said it has stopped supplies of LNG from two floating terminals in Cox’s Bazar.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)