Last Updated: May 14, 2023, 09:53 IST
People gather by the seafront in Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on May 12, 2023, ahead of the expected arrival of Cyclone Mocha. (Credits: AFP)
Cyclone Mocha is expected to make landfall around 0630 GMT (12 pm IST) between Cox’s Bazar and Sittwe on Myanmar’s western Rakhine coast
Cyclone Mocha, one of the most powerful cyclones in Bay of Bengal, is set to make landfall on Sunday with lakhs of residents evacuated in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The most powerful cyclone was travelling with a wind of up to 240 kilometres per hour, making it a Super Cyclone.
According to the forecast, it is expected to make landfall around 0630 GMT (12 pm IST) between Cox’s Bazar and Sittwe on Myanmar’s western Rakhine coast.
Here are the latest updates on Cyclone Mocha:
- Forecasters expect the cyclone to bring a deluge of rain, which can trigger landslips. The Met Office official also said that the cyclone could cause tidal surges from 8 to 12 feet beyond the normal tide.
- Prime Minister Hasina warned that the cyclone could disrupt electricity and gas supplies and particularly cause water stagnation in coastal areas.
- Ever since its formation in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday, the tropical Cyclone has intensified to a high-end Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, with sustained winds of 240 km per hour.
- Meteorologists said the storm’s path is set to affect Bangladesh’s southeastern border district of Cox’s Bazar where over a million Rohingya refugees live.
- Bangladeshi authorities moved 190,000 people in Cox’s Bazar and nearly 100,000 in Chittagong to safety, divisional commissioner Aminur Rahman said on Saturday.
- In Bangladesh, authorities have banned Rohingya refugees from constructing concrete homes, fearing it may incentivise them to settle permanently rather than return to Myanmar, which they fled five years ago following a brutal military crackdown.
- In Myanmar, the World Food Programme said it was preparing food and relief supplies that could help more than 400,000 people in Rakhine and surrounding areas for a month.
- At least 10,000 have left their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state for safer areas, local media reported.
- Cyclone Mocha is the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr, that hit Bangladesh’s southern coast in November 2007 and killed more than 3,000 people.
