Dhaka: Thousands of people hid in monasteries, pagodas and schools on Sunday, seeking shelter from a powerful storm that slammed into Myanmar’s coast, tearing roofs off buildings and killing at least three people. Myanmar’s meteorological department said Cyclone Mocha made landfall on Sunday afternoon near Sittwe township in Myanmar’s Rakhine state with winds of 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour. The storm first passed over Bangladesh’s Saint Martin Island, causing damage and injuries, but moved away from the country’s coasts before landfall.
As night fell, the extent of the damage in Sittwe was unclear. Earlier on Sunday, strong winds toppled cell phone towers, cutting communications across much of the region.
In video collected by local media before communications were cut off, deep water rushed through streets while wind snapped trees and pulled boards from roofs.
Rakhine-based media reported that roads were flooded, with people trapped in their homes in low-lying areas as worried relatives outside townships appealed for rescue.
Myanmar’s Military Information Office said the storm damaged houses, power transformers, cell phone towers, boats and lampposts in Sittwe, Kyawpyu and Gwa townships. It said the storm also tore roofs off sports buildings on Koko Island, about 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of Yangon, the country’s largest city.
More than 4,000 of Sittwe’s 300,000 residents were evacuated to other towns and more than 20,000 were taking shelter in fortified buildings such as monasteries, pagodas and schools located in the city’s highlands, said Tin Nyen O, who Volunteering at shelters in Sittwe.
Lin Lin, president of a local charitable foundation, said there was not enough food in the shelters in Sittwe after more people arrived than expected.
UN Development Program representative in Myanmar Titan Mitra tweeted: “Mocha has made landfall. 2 million people are at risk. Damage and loss is expected to be widespread. We stand ready to respond and provide uninterrupted access to all affected communities Access will be required.”
Myanmar state television reported that the military government was preparing to send food, medicine and medical personnel to the storm-hit area. After hitting Rakhine, the cyclone weakened and was forecast to hit the northwestern state of Chin and central regions on Monday.
Several deaths were reported from Myanmar on Sunday morning due to wind and rain.
A rescue team in the country’s eastern Shan state announced on their Facebook social media page that they had recovered the bodies of a couple who were buried in a landslide at their home in Tachilik township triggered by heavy rains. Local media reported that a man was crushed to death by a falling banyan tree in Pyin O Lwin township in the central Mandalay region.
Cyclone Mocha wreaks havoc in Bangladesh
Officials in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, which lay in the storm’s projected path, had earlier said they had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people, but by the afternoon it appeared the storm would miss most of the country as it moved east. was, said Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department in Dhaka.
“The risk level in our Bangladesh has come down to a great extent,” he told reporters.
Dhaka-based Jamuna TV station reported that strong winds accompanied by rain continued to blow in St. Martin Island in the Bay of Bengal in the afternoon, but there were fears that the tide would not come as the cyclone had started crossing the Bangladesh coast at low tide.
About a dozen islanders were injured, while around 300 houses were either destroyed or damaged, major Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported. It said that a woman was seriously injured.
UN agencies and aid workers in Bangladesh have already placed tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams in refugee camps home to more than one million members of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
Cyclone Nargis killed 1.38 lakh people in Myanmar in 2008
In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm surge that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River Delta. At least 1,38,000 people were killed and thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away.
Roxy Mathew Cole, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are intensifying more rapidly due to climate change.
Cyclone Amphan caused widespread damage in India in 2020
Climate scientists say that cyclones can now maintain their energy for several days. Cyclone Amphan continued to travel over land as a powerful cyclone in eastern India in 2020 and caused widespread devastation.
“As long as the oceans are warm and the winds are favorable, cyclones will maintain their intensity for a long time,” Cole said.
Tropical cyclones, called hurricanes or typhoons in other regions, are among the world’s most devastating natural disasters when they strike densely populated coastal areas.