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PremiumSuper cyclone ‘Mocha’ made landfall along the Myanmar-Bangladesh coasts on Sunday, after intensifying into the equivalent of a Category-5 storm, causing extensive damage to the southeastern coastlines and forcing the evacuation of over five lakh people in low lying areas. The death toll from Cyclone Mocha which barrelled through the Bay of Bengal rose on Monday as contact was slowly restored to western Myanmar, with 29 people reported dead. No casualty has been reported in Bangladesh but destroyed hundreds of makeshift shelters in Cox's Bazar.
Check all the latest updates on Cyclone Mocha at Mint's Liveblog:
Early warnings from weather agencies and better preparedness by local governments and aid agencies likely saved thousands of lives during a powerful cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh and Myanmar over the weekend. But there are concerns about a large number of people still unaccounted for in areas where preparations were lacking. (AP)
Many people, including Rohingya Muslims, were feared dead in Myanmar in the wake of a cyclone that struck at the weekend, residents, aid groups and a media outlet said on Tuesday, with support efforts hampered by infrastructure damage.
The death toll in cyclone-hit villages of Myanmar's Rakhine state rose to at least 41 on Tuesday, local leaders told AFP. Packing winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, Mocha made landfall on Sunday, downing power pylons and smashing wooden fishing boats to splinters. "We can confirm there are 17 deaths," Karlo, the administrator of Bu Ma village near the state capital Sittwe, told an AFP reporter at the scene. "There will be more deaths, as more than a hundred people are missing." The village is inhabited by the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority. The Bu Ma number was on top of a death toll of 24 given to AFP by a Rohingya village leader in nearby Khaung Doke Kar village. That leader requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals from the country's junta.
This combination of handout satellite images, created on May 16, 2023, and taken and released by Maxar Technologies, shows a general view of buildings and infrastructure in Sittwe in Myanmar's Rakhine State on February 17, 2023 (top) and the same view on May 14, 2023 (below) showing the extent of damage after Cyclone Mocha hit the coastline of Myanmar and Bangladesh. Cyclone Mocha made landfall between Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and Myanmar's Sittwe carrying winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, the biggest storm to hit the Bay of Bengal in more than a decade. (Image: AFP)
At least 236 houses and eight refugee camps have been damaged after super cyclone ‘Mocha’ struck several parts of Mizoram, officials said on Monday. A total of 5,749 people in more than 50 villages were affected by the powerful winds on Sunday, they said. However, there were no reports of fatalities.
Many Rohingya Muslims were killed in Western Myanmar when Cyclone Mocha struck at the weekend, residents, a relief group in the area and a local media report said on Tuesday.
Two residents and local non-governmental organisation operating in Rakhine State, Partners, told Reuters the cyclone had caused major destruction with scores of casualties. Media outlet Myanmar Now said there were 22 deaths in Rohingya communities, citing residents.
The death toll from Cyclone Mocha which barrelled through the Bay of Bengal rose on Monday as contact was slowly restored to western Myanmar, with 29 people reported dead.
Cyclone Mocha made landfall between Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and Myanmar's Sittwe carrying winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, the biggest storm to hit the Bay of Bengal in more than a decade.
The storm had largely passed by late Sunday, sparing the refugee camps housing almost a million Rohingya in Bangladesh, where officials said there had been no deaths.
Twenty four people were killed in Khaung Doke Kar village tract northwest of Sittwe, a Rohingya camp leader told AFP, requesting anonymity due to fear of reprisals from the junta.
Several others were feared missing from the low-lying tract, home to Rohingya villages and IDP camps, he said.
AFP footage from the area showed wooden fishing boats smashed to splinters and piled up near the shore.
At least five people were killed in Myanmar and "some residents" were injured, the military junta said in an earlier statement, without giving details.
More than 860 houses and 14 hospitals or clinics had been damaged across the country, it said.
Communications were still patchy on Monday with Rakhine state's capital Sittwe, home to around 150,000 people and which bore the brunt of the storm according to cyclone trackers.
Hundreds of people who had sheltered on higher ground were returning to the city along a road littered with trees, pylons and power cables, AFP correspondents said.
In Sittwe, power pylons hung low over deserted streets and trees still standing were stripped of leaves.
At least five people had died in the city and around 25 had been injured, local rescue worker Ko Lin Lin told AFP.
It was not clear whether any of them were included in the death toll in the junta's statement. (AFP)
Rescuers 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. Six deaths were 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.
Seawater raced into more than 10 low-lying wards near the shore as Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Rakhine state Sunday afternoon, he said. Residents moved to roofs and higher floors, while the wind and storm surge prevented immediate rescue.
Water was still about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high in flooded areas later Monday, but rescues were being made as the wind calmed and the sun rose in the sky. He asked civil society organizations and authorities to send aid and help evacuate residents.
Six deaths were reported by Myanmar media and rescue groups. Several injuries were reported in neighboring Bangladesh, which was spared the predicted direct hit.
Mocha made landfall near Sittwe township with winds blowing up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said. By midday Monday, it had weakened to a tropical depression, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The State Administration Council issued disaster declarations for 17 townships in Rakhine state.
High winds crumpled cell phone towers, but in videos collected by local media before communications were lost, deep water raced through streets and wind blew off roofs.
Myanmar’s military information office said the storm had damaged houses and electrical transformers in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships. It said roofs were torn off buildings on the Coco Islands, about 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of the country’s largest city, Yangon. (AP)
Cyclonic Mocha on Monday weakened into a depression over Myanmar. The system is likely to weaken into well marked Low Pressure Area (LPA) during next few hours, according to IMD.
Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.
Cyclones -- the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the Northwest Pacific -- are a regular and deadly menace on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean where tens of millions of people live.
Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta in 2008, killing at least 138,000 people.
Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh's southern coast in November 2007, killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
A major Myanmar port city remained cut off from contact on Monday after a cyclone tore through the west of the country. The road to Sittwe was littered with trees, pylons and power cables.
Rescuers early Monday evacuated about 1,000 people trapped by seawater 3.6 meters (12 feet ) deep along western Myanmar's coast because of cyclone Mocha. Strong winds injured more than 700 of about 20,000 people who were sheltering in sturdier buildings at Sittwe, Myanmar.
The military in Myanmar has imposed internet shutdowns across parts of the country, including some areas in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin state.
In remote and hilly Chin, which has previously seen heavy fighting between the junta and the resistance, the areas the storm swept through is under a communications blackout since the coup.
Cyclone Mocha barrelled into the western coast of Myanmar from the Bay of Bengal yesterday. The strong storm flooded Rakhine's capital of Sittwe and took down at least one communications tower.
According to the United Nations Development Programme's consultant, it was hard to understand the scale of destruction because of ruptured communications in Rakhine.
Mocha largely spared the Bangladeshi city of Cox's Bazar, which initially had been in the storm's predicted path. Authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people before the cyclone veered east. Cyclone Mocha did not materialize because it started crossing Bangladesh's coast at low tide, according to the Dhaka-based Jamuna TV station.
However, the ferocious cyclone caused injury to a dozen people on Saint Martin’s Island, while some 300 homes were either destroyed or damaged in Bangladesh.
At least three deaths were reported in Myanmar. A rescue team said on Facebook that they had recovered the bodies of a couple who were buried when a landslide hit their house in Tachileik township. Local media reported a man was crushed to death when a banyan tree fell on him in Pyin Oo Lwin township in the central Mandalay region.
Myanmar’s military information office said the storm had damaged houses, electrical transformers, cell phone towers, boats and lampposts in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships. It said roofs were torn off buildings on the Coco Islands.
High winds caused by Cyclone Mocha crumpled cell phone towers, which affected communications in Myanmar. Besides, deep water raced through streets while wind-lashed trees and pulled boards off roofs.
