Cyclone Mocha hits Myanmar, Bangladesh

Gulf Today Report

Thousands of people hunkered down Sunday in monasteries, pagodas and schools, seeking shelter from a powerful storm that slammed into the coast of Myanmar, tearing roofs off buildings and killing at least five people.

Cyclone Mocha crashed through Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, sparing sprawling refugee camps but bringing a storm surge to swathes of western Myanmar where communications were largely cut off.

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Rescuers early on Monday evacuated about 1,000 people trapped by seawater 3.6 meters (12 feet ) deep along western Myanmar's coast after a powerful cyclone injured hundreds and cut off communications. Damage and at least five deaths have been reported, but the true impact was not yet clear in one of Asia’s least developed countries.

Strong winds injured more than 700 of about 20,000 people who were sheltering in sturdier buildings on the highlands of Sittwe township such as monasteries, pagodas and schools, according to a leader of the Rakhine Youths Philanthropic Association in Sittwe. He asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals from the authorities in the military-run country.

A man holds a child as he moves to the nearest cyclone shelter at Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf, Bangladesh. Reuters

Mocha made landfall between Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and Myanmar's Sittwe packing winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, in the biggest storm to hit the Bay of Bengal in over a decade.

By late Sunday the storm had largely passed, the media correspondents said, and India's weather office said it would weaken as it hit the rugged hills of Myanmar's interior.

Some 400-500 makeshift shelters were damaged in camps housing almost one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar but there were no immediate reports of casualties, refugee commissioner Mizanur Rahman told the media.

This picture shows a view of a street in Kyauktaw in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. AFP

In Teknaf in Bangladesh volunteers emerged to remove fallen trees and other obstacles from the roads, an AFP correspondent said.

Disaster official Kamrul Hasan said the Cyclone had caused "no major damage" in Bangladesh, adding authorities had evacuated 750,000 people ahead of the storm.

Communications with the port town of Sittwe in Myanmar were largely cut off following the storm, AFP correspondents said.

A man walks past a fallen tree on power lines in Teknaf during the Cyclone Mocha's landfall. AFP

Streets in the town of around 150,000 people were turned into rivers as the storm surged ashore, tearing roofs from buildings and downing power lines.

The wind ripped apart homes made of tarpaulin and bamboo at one camp for displaced Rohingya at Kyaukphyu in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Its residents were anxiously watching the rising sea tide, camp leader Khin Shwe told AFP.

"We are now going to check whether sea water is increasing to our place... if the seawater rises, our camp can be flooded," he said.

Rescue workers help an elderly woman to reach a makeshift shelter in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. AP

Thousands left Sittwe on Saturday, packing into trucks, cars and tuk-tuks and heading for higher ground inland as meteorologists warned of a storm surge of up to 3.5 metres (11 feet).

"We are not okay because we didn't bring food and other things to cook," said Maung Win, 57, who spent the night in a shelter in Kyauktaw town further inland. "We can only wait to get food from people's donations."