devastation
Cyclone Mocha devastates Myanmar’s west coast
In this video still, locals walk on a road flooded by heavy rain as Cyclone Mocha approaches Myanmar. photo
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
“Mocha” brings back bad memories of cyclone “Nargis” 15 years ago. The hurricane is raging at red alert in Myanmar – and heading for Bangladesh.
Remnants of the powerful cyclone “Mocha” have made landfall on Myanmar’s west coast and have caused the first devastation in the crisis-ridden country.
The GDACS disaster warning system (Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System) has put the cyclone on red alert and expects destructive wind speeds of up to 259 kilometers per hour in Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh. “Mocha” had been gaining strength over the Bay of Bengal for days.
“The storm has been raging since morning and is getting stronger,” said Kan Aung, a man from Sittwe City who is reporting on the storm’s current situation with a local team. Sittwe and large parts of Rakhine State are said to lie exactly on the route of the storm.
GDACS: Up to 3.1 million affected
“Mocha” has not yet reached its highest strength. “We see trees falling and small huts damaged, but larger houses are still standing,” said the 21-year-old on Sunday morning (local time) of the German Press Agency. Telephone lines and Internet connections are already interrupted near the coast.
Sittwe is only around 180 kilometers as the crow flies southeast of the city of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which is also likely to be hit hard. Around a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live there in makeshift shelters. Many had been evacuated in advance. People have been urged to stay away from shores where violent tidal waves were expected. According to GDACS, up to 3.1 million people could be affected in total.
Many in the region fear that “Mocha” could have the same terrible consequences as cyclone “Nargis” 15 years ago: on May 2nd and 3rd, 2008, the tropical storm in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta killed almost 140,000 people, according to estimates cracked. The devastation was tremendous. “The families here are afraid,” said Kan Aung. “The storm will probably be as powerful as “Nargis”, we can only pray.”