Dhaka: Powerful typhoon Mokha has slammed into the coast of Myanmar, damaging several houses and killing at least three people. Thousands took shelter in monasteries, pagodas and schools on Sunday to escape the powerful storm. Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said Cyclone Mokha made landfall near Sittwe town in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Sunday afternoon with winds of up to 209 kilometers per hour. The storm first passed the island of Saint Martin in Bangladesh, causing significant damage and casualties.
Earlier in the day, strong winds toppled several mobile towers, cutting off communication links in most of the region. Media in Rakhine reported that rains from the cyclone’s impact flooded roads, people were trapped in their homes in low-lying areas and worried relatives of victims outside the town appealed for rescue. Myanmar’s military information office said the storm damaged houses, power transformers, cell phone towers, boats and lampposts in the towns of Sittwe, Kyaukpyu and Gwa. It said the storm also caused roofs to collapse on sports buildings on Koko Island, about 425 km southwest of the country’s largest city, Yangon.
In Sittwe, with a population of 300,000, more than 4,000 people have been evacuated to other towns and more than 20,000 have taken shelter in monasteries, pagodas and high-rise buildings in the city, said Tin Nyan Oo, who is working at shelters in Sittwe. Have taken shelter in sturdy buildings like schools located in the areas. Lin Lin, president of a local charitable foundation, said shelters in Sittwe did not have enough food after more people arrived than expected.
Titan Mitra, United Nations Development Program representative in Myanmar, tweeted, “Mokha has knocked.” 20 lakh people are in danger. Loss and damage is expected to be widespread. We are prepared to deal with it and will need to provide uninterrupted aid to all affected communities. Several people were reported killed in Myanmar on Sunday due to strong winds and rain.
Authorities in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, which was in the path of Cyclone Mokha, had earlier said they had evacuated thousands of people to safety. Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department in Dhaka, said, however, that by afternoon the storm appeared to have moved east, leaving most of the country untouched. He told reporters that “the risk level in Bangladesh has come down to a great extent”.
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