Powerful Cyclone Mocha makes landfall in Myanmar, tearing off roofs and killing at least 3

A strong storm that hit Myanmar’s shore on Sunday, knocking off roofs and killing at least three people, left thousands of people holed up in temples, pagodas, and schools.

According to Myanmar’s Meteorological Department, Cyclone Mocha made landfall Sunday afternoon in the Rakhine state of Myanmar close to Sittwe township with winds of up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour. Before making landfall, the storm avoided Bangladesh’s coast by passing over Saint Martin’s Island, where it had previously caused damage and injuries.

The extent of the destruction in Sittwe was unclear when night fell. High winds earlier in the day toppled cell phone towers, cutting down connections across a large portion of the region.

Deep water surges through streets in footage gathered by local media before communications were cut off, while wind torches trees and rips roof shingles off.

In low-lying regions, residents were trapped in their homes while frightened relatives outside the township pleaded for help, according to Rakhine-based media.

According to Myanmar’s military information office, the storm in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships damaged homes, electrical transformers, cell phone towers, boats, and lampposts. It said that the storm also destroyed sports facilities on the Coco Islands, which are located 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of Yangon, the largest city in the nation.

According to Tin Nyein Oo, a volunteer at shelters in Sittwe, more than 4,000 of the 300,000 inhabitants of Sittwe were evacuated to neighboring towns, while more than 20,000 people were taking refuge in strong structures including monasteries, pagodas, and schools situated on the city’s highlands.

After more people than anticipated arrived, according to Lin Lin, the chairman of a local humanitarian organisation, there was not enough food in the shelters in Sittwe.

“Mocha has made landfall,” tweeted Titon Mitra, the U.N. Development Program’s representative in Myanmar. 2 million individuals are at risk. Large-scale losses and damage are anticipated. We need unrestricted access to all impacted communities in order to respond, and we are prepared.

The military administration of Myanmar is getting ready to send food, medicine, and medical professionals to the storm-devastated area, according to official media in Myanmar. After pummeling Rakhine, the storm weakened and was expected to make landfall on Monday in the central areas and the northwest state of Chin.

Several deaths brought on by wind and rain were reported in Myanmar on Sunday morning.

The bodies of a couple who were buried when a landslide brought on by heavy rain struck their home in Tachileik township were found, according to a rescue team from the country’s eastern Shan state, which made the announcement on its Facebook social media page. In the Pyin Oo Lwin township, which is located in the central Mandalay region, a man was reported to have been crushed to death when a banyan tree fell on him.

However, by early afternoon, it appeared that the storm would largely miss the country as it veered east, said Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department in Dhaka. Earlier, authorities in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, which lay in the storm’s predicted path, said they had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people.

In our Bangladesh, the risk level has significantly decreased, he told reporters.

In the afternoon, Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal continued to experience strong gusts and rain, but feared tidal surges did not occur because the cyclone started reaching Bangladesh’s coast at low tide, according to the Jamuna TV station in Dhaka.

Leading Bengali-language newspaper Prothom Alo stated that 300 dwellings were either demolished or damaged and that about a dozen island residents were hurt. It stated one woman had suffered a critical injury.

Numerous ambulances with mobile medical teams and tons of dry food had been prepositioned by U.N. organizations and relief workers in Bangladesh in the vast refugee camps where more than 1 million Rohingya who had escaped persecution in Myanmar are now living.

A storm surge brought on by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 wreaked havoc on the Irrawaddy River Delta’s populated areas. Tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were destroyed, and at least 138,000 people died.

Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are intensifying more quickly, according to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. She said this is partly due to climate change.

Cyclones can now sustain their intensity for several days, according to climate scientists. In 2020, Cyclone Amphan in eastern India continued to move over land as a powerful cyclone and left behind significant destruction.

Cyclones will maintain their intensity for a longer length of time “as long as oceans are warm and winds are favorable,” Koll added.

Cyclones are among the most deadly natural catastrophes in the world, especially when they strike highly populated coastal regions. Cyclones are large storms that are comparable to those known as hurricanes or typhoons in other parts of the world.