Kyawktaw, Myanmar: The Bay of BengalHundreds of thousands were evacuated from coasts as the most powerful cyclone in more than a decade was set to make landfall on Sunday Myanmar And Bangladesh is taking shelter from strong winds and rain.
cyclone mocha According to the Zoom Earth website, which classified it as a super cyclone, it had sustained winds of up to 240 kilometers per hour (149 mph).
It is forecast to make landfall around 0630 GMT in the middle of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya Refugees live largely in camps made of slums, and Sittwe in the western part of Myanmar Rakhine coast.
“The wind is getting stronger at the moment,” rescue worker Kyaw Kyaw Khing told AFP from the town of Pauktaw, some 25 km inland from Sittwe.
“We distributed enough food for one or two meals to those evacuated in temporary shelters. I don’t think we will be able to send any food today because of the weather.”
Thousands of people packed Sittwe into trucks, cars and tuk-tuks and headed for inland higher ground as meteorologists warned of storm surges of up to 3.5 metres.
“We are not well because we did not bring food and other supplies to cook,” said Maung Win, 57, who spent the night at a shelter in Kyuktaw town. “We can only wait to receive food from people’s donations.”
Divisional commissioner Aminur Rahman told AFP late on Saturday that Bangladeshi authorities had evacuated 190,000 people to safety in Cox’s Bazar and about 100,000 in Chittagong.
Residents said on Sunday that the rain and wind were felt some 500 kilometers away in Myanmar’s commercial hub of Yangon.
The Myanmar Red Cross Society said it was “preparing for a major emergency response”.
In Bangladesh, authorities have banned Rohingya refugees from building concrete houses, fearing it could encourage them to settle permanently rather than return to Myanmar, which they fled five years ago following a brutal military crackdown. ran away after.
“We live in houses made of tarpaulin and bamboo,” said Inam Ahmed, a refugee in the Nayapara camp near the border town of Teknaf.
“We are scared. We don’t know where to find shelter.”
The camps are generally slightly inland, but most of them are built on hills, making them prone to landslides.
Forecasters expect the cyclone to bring a deluge of rain, which could trigger landslides.
Authorities moved to move Rohingya refugees from “risky areas” to more concrete structures such as community centers and schools, but Bangladesh’s deputy refugee commissioner Shamsud Douza told AFP: “All Rohingya in the camps are at risk.”
Hundreds of people also fled St. Martin’s Island, a local resort area in the storm’s path, with thousands moving to cyclone shelters on coral outcrops.
“hurricane kahwa The most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr,” Azizur Rahman, head of Bangladesh’s meteorological department, told AFP.
That cyclone hit the southern coast of Bangladesh in November 2007, killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Rohingya living in displacement camps inside Myanmar were also facing the storm.
“We are very worried. If the water level rises, we could be in danger,” said a camp leader near Kyukpyu in Rakhine state, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions from the junta.
“There are about 1,000 people in the camp… The authorities only gave us bags of rice, oil and five life jackets. The local authorities have not arranged any accommodation for us.”
Boat transport and fishing were suspended as well as operations in Bangladesh’s largest port, Chittagong.
Cyclones – the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific Northwest – are a regular and deadly threat along the coast of the northern Indian Ocean where millions of people live.
cyclone mocha According to the Zoom Earth website, which classified it as a super cyclone, it had sustained winds of up to 240 kilometers per hour (149 mph).
It is forecast to make landfall around 0630 GMT in the middle of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya Refugees live largely in camps made of slums, and Sittwe in the western part of Myanmar Rakhine coast.
“The wind is getting stronger at the moment,” rescue worker Kyaw Kyaw Khing told AFP from the town of Pauktaw, some 25 km inland from Sittwe.
“We distributed enough food for one or two meals to those evacuated in temporary shelters. I don’t think we will be able to send any food today because of the weather.”
Thousands of people packed Sittwe into trucks, cars and tuk-tuks and headed for inland higher ground as meteorologists warned of storm surges of up to 3.5 metres.
“We are not well because we did not bring food and other supplies to cook,” said Maung Win, 57, who spent the night at a shelter in Kyuktaw town. “We can only wait to receive food from people’s donations.”
Divisional commissioner Aminur Rahman told AFP late on Saturday that Bangladeshi authorities had evacuated 190,000 people to safety in Cox’s Bazar and about 100,000 in Chittagong.
Residents said on Sunday that the rain and wind were felt some 500 kilometers away in Myanmar’s commercial hub of Yangon.
The Myanmar Red Cross Society said it was “preparing for a major emergency response”.
In Bangladesh, authorities have banned Rohingya refugees from building concrete houses, fearing it could encourage them to settle permanently rather than return to Myanmar, which they fled five years ago following a brutal military crackdown. ran away after.
“We live in houses made of tarpaulin and bamboo,” said Inam Ahmed, a refugee in the Nayapara camp near the border town of Teknaf.
“We are scared. We don’t know where to find shelter.”
The camps are generally slightly inland, but most of them are built on hills, making them prone to landslides.
Forecasters expect the cyclone to bring a deluge of rain, which could trigger landslides.
Authorities moved to move Rohingya refugees from “risky areas” to more concrete structures such as community centers and schools, but Bangladesh’s deputy refugee commissioner Shamsud Douza told AFP: “All Rohingya in the camps are at risk.”
Hundreds of people also fled St. Martin’s Island, a local resort area in the storm’s path, with thousands moving to cyclone shelters on coral outcrops.
“hurricane kahwa The most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr,” Azizur Rahman, head of Bangladesh’s meteorological department, told AFP.
That cyclone hit the southern coast of Bangladesh in November 2007, killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Rohingya living in displacement camps inside Myanmar were also facing the storm.
“We are very worried. If the water level rises, we could be in danger,” said a camp leader near Kyukpyu in Rakhine state, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions from the junta.
“There are about 1,000 people in the camp… The authorities only gave us bags of rice, oil and five life jackets. The local authorities have not arranged any accommodation for us.”
Boat transport and fishing were suspended as well as operations in Bangladesh’s largest port, Chittagong.
Cyclones – the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific Northwest – are a regular and deadly threat along the coast of the northern Indian Ocean where millions of people live.