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Rescuers on Monday evacuated about 1,000 people – trapped by 3.6 meters deep sea water – from Myanmar’s western coast after a powerful typhoon killed hundreds and cut off communications. Six deaths have been reported, but the true impact is not yet clear in one of Asia’s most developed countries.
Strong winds injured more than 700 of the approximately 20,000 people who took refuge in more sturdy buildings in the highlands of Sittwe city, such as monasteries, pagodas and schools, according to the leader of the Rakhine Youths Philanthropic Association in Sittwe. He asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from authorities in the military-run country.
Seawater rushed into more than 10 wards close to the coast as Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Rakhine state on Sunday evening, it said. Residents moved to higher roofs and floors, while the wind and storm could not save them.
“After 4 pm yesterday, the storm weakened a bit, but the water did not fall again. Most of them sat on the roofs and in high places in their houses at night. The wind blew all night,” the leader of the rescue group. said.
Cyclone Mocha made landfall on Sunday evening, bringing rain, as well as damaging winds and storms.
Winds up to 209 km/h
Water was still about 1.5 meters high in the flooded area on Monday, but rescues were underway as winds calmed and the sun rose in the sky.
Some injuries were also reported in neighboring Bangladesh, which was not directly hit by the attack.
Mocha made landfall near the town of Sittwe with winds of up to 209 km/h, according to the Myanmar Meteorological Department. By Monday afternoon, it had weakened to a tropical depression, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The State Administration Council issued a disaster declaration for 17 towns in Rakhine state.
High winds damaged cell phone towers, but in a video collected by local media before communications were lost, deep water rushed down the road and the wind blew off roofs.
Myanmar’s military information office said the storm damaged houses and power transformers in the towns of Sittwe, Kyaukpyu and Gwa. They said the roofs of buildings in the Coco Islands, about 425 kilometers southwest of the country’s largest city, Yangon.
Volunteers earlier said the shelter in Sittwe did not have enough food after more people came there asking for help.
Mocha largely saved the city of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which was initially in the path of the storm’s forecast. Authorities have moved hundreds of thousands of people ahead of the typhoon to the east.
Bangladesh government official Enamur Rahman said the damage was still being assessed, but about 2,000 houses had been destroyed and another 10,000 damaged in Saint Martin Island and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar district.
About the injured on the island of Saint Martin, the newspaper Prothom Alo reported.
UN agencies and aid workers in Bangladesh have tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances in refugee camps housing more than one million Rohingya Muslims who have fled persecution in Myanmar.
Stronger, faster
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.
Tropical cyclones, which are called typhoons or typhoons in other regions, are among the most dangerous natural disasters in the world when they hit densely populated coastal areas.
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