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Bangladesh and Myanmar braced Sunday as severe storms began battering coastal areas and authorities urged thousands of people in both countries to seek shelter.
The outermost band of Cyclone Mocha reached the coast of Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Sunday morning, and in the evening the center of the storm is expected to land near the city of Sittwe, which is under the highest weather warning, the Myanmar Meteorological Department said on Sunday.
More than 4,000 of Sittwe’s 300,000 residents have been evacuated to other towns since Friday and more than 20,000 people are living in fortified buildings such as monasteries, pagodas and schools located in the city’s highlands, said Tin Nyein Oo, who helps people in shelter in Sittwe.
Many local people live in areas that are more than three meters above sea level, where residents believe that storms cannot reach them, he added.
‘Too many people in shelters’
Strong winds of 40 to 48 kilometers per hour were in the city, Tin Nyein Oo said on Sunday morning.
“The storm hasn’t hit yet, so it’s not too difficult. However, there are too many people in shelters and not enough toilets,” he said.
Lin Lin, chairman of a local charity foundation, said earlier that there was not enough food at the shelter in Sittwe after more people arrived than expected.
In most of Bangladesh, the weather remained sunny and humid on Sunday morning.
UN agencies and aid workers in Bangladesh have deployed tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams in refugee camps housing more than a million Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
Bangladesh has issued the highest warning signal for the city of Cox’s Bazar, the site of the camp. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned the cyclone could cause heavy damage to lives and property in eight coastal districts.
More than a million people were affected
No heavy rain was reported in Cox’s Bazar since Sunday morning. Authorities said around 1.27 million people have been evacuated in the district.
The sea is rough.
Fisher Jamal Uddin in Cox’s Bazar said local elected officials and volunteers are helping in cyclone shelters. “We are asking people to move to a safe place. We are trying to stay safe,” he said.
“The weather is not good. We are following the instructions of the Meteorological Department. Now we are thinking what to do,” he said.
Bangladesh, with more than 160 million people, has prepared more than 1,500 cyclone shelters. The navy said it was preparing 21 ships, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters for rescue and relief operations.
Authorities in Bangladesh said heavy rains from the cyclone could trigger landslides in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar and three other hilly districts – Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari.
Climate change storms
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered officials to prepare for evacuation and rescue.
Junior disaster management minister Enamur Rahman said Saint Martin Island in the Bay of Bengal could face greater risks, and the government had prepared 37 cyclone shelters to accommodate 8,500 people there.
In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River Delta. At least 138,000 people were killed and tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were destroyed.
Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in the city of Pune, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming faster, partly because of climate change.
Climate scientists say current cyclones can retain energy for days. Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020 continues to pass over the land as a strong cyclone and cause great damage.
“As long as the sea is warm and the winds are good, cyclones will retain their intensity for longer,” Koll said.
Cyclones are one of the most dangerous natural disasters in the world, especially when they affect densely populated coastal areas in South Asia.
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