Powerful cyclone barrels towards Myanmar, Bangladesh
Apowerful storm closed in on the coasts of Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people to safer locations, many from frail homes in low-lying areas. CycloneMocha, packing winds of up to 210 kph (130 mph), could bring sea surges of up to 12 feet (4 m) affecting more than 2 million people directly in its path, most of them in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states.
But many more could suffer as the storm moves inland from the Bay of Bengal, the United Nations Satellite Centre has warned.
“Saving lives is our main priority,” said disaster relief official Mijanur Rahman in neighbouring Bangladesh, which has moved about 300,000 people before the storm is expected to hit land around noon,” said Farah Kabir of ActionAid Bangladesh.
“Aid workers are worrying about the risk to more than a million Rohingya refugees, half-a-million children among them, living in camps in the beach town of Cox’s Bazar near the cyclone’s path.
“People at risk are in the process of being transferred to safe shelters and we are also arranging relief packages.”
Most refugees live in makeshift dwellings in the densely packed camps after having fled a militaryled crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
At least 100,000 people in Myanmar’s impoverished Rakhine state have moved to safer areas since last week, said a major ethnic militia and the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA).
“We are using monasteries and schools as shelters,” said Arakan Army spokesperson Khine Thu
Photo:
Kha.
Uniformed soldiers wearing orange life vests moved residents in wooden boats, in pictures and videos provided by the militia, but Reuters could not immediately verify these.
Because of the storm’s counterclockwise flow, the worst and most damaging conditions will most likely be at the landfall location and just to the south of where the eye comes ashore. However, damaging tropical storm-force winds, 39 miles per hour or higher, will extend more than 180 miles from the center.
Bangladeshi authorities have structed fishing boat operators the Bay of Bengal to stay close shore. inin to