Cyclone Mocha begins landfall in Myanmar; region steels for disaster
The India Meteorological Department forecast that Cyclone Mocha would have sustained winds of about 120 mph, down slightly from 150 mph earlier in the day, as it veered toward the eastern flank of the Indian subcontinent. That would make it one of the strongest storms to strike the Bay of Bengal in recent years.
Some 300,000 people in Bangladesh had been evacuated ahead of the storm as of noon on Sunday, local authorities said. The figure excludes the Rohingya, who have been moved to safer places within refugee camps. Myanmar’s junta government said that more than 78,000 people had been moved in Rakhine state, in the west, and nearby areas as of Saturday. (A major militia in Rakhine, where there has been a long-standing insurgency, told local reporters that about 100,000 residents have been moved in recent days.)
Aid agencies working in the southeastern Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, home to Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee encampment, prepared shelter materials and health-care supplies, warning of devastating consequences for refugees living in flimsy bamboo homes.
Shortly after noon, the weather had turned choppy in Teknaf, outside Cox’s Bazar. Wind and rain gathered speed as trees convulsed.
“Trees and tin roofs of the houses are being blown away. But there is no tidal surge yet,” Nurul Haque, who lives on St. Martin’s Island, near Cox’s Bazar, said by phone. The island of some 10,000 people is forecast to be in the cyclone’s pathway.
The U.N. refugee agency has stockpiled supplies of dry food, and relief agencies can provide 50,000 hot meals daily if needed, it said in a statement. The World Health Organization has ambulances and mobile medical teams on standby in the area.
In Myanmar, the World Food Program has prepared food supplies to cover the needs of more than 400,000 people in Rakhine state and neighboring areas for a month, the agency said in a statement.
The areas impacted are “burdened by conflict, poverty, and weak community resilience,” said Sheela Matthew, WFP’s deputy director for Myanmar.
“They simply cannot afford another disaster,” she added.
Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in 2008, killed nearly 85,000 people and displaced many more.
Azad Majumder in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Mohammad Faruque in Teknaf, Bangladesh, and Cape Diamond in Yangon, Myanmar, contributed to this report.
