2023-05-15 13:01:40
The passage of Cyclone Mocha in Burma killed at least five people. “Some residents were injured” on the passage of Mocha, said Monday, May 15 the junta in its press release, adding that 864 houses and 14 hospitals or clinics had been damaged across the country.
With winds of up to 195 kilometers per hour, the biggest storm in more than a decade in the Bay of Bengal hit Sunday between Sittwe and Cox’s Bazar in neighboring Bangladesh. By late Sunday, the storm had largely passed, sparing the sprawling refugee camps, where nearly a million Rohingya live in Bangladesh. The authorities of this country did not report any death.
Communications with Sittwe, home to around 150,000 people and which bore the brunt of the storm, according to cyclone tracking sites, remained largely unresolved as of Monday. Contacts are gradually resuming on Monday with the tens of thousands of inhabitants of this large port city.
The road leading to the city was littered with trees, pylons and electric cables, found correspondents of Agence France-Presse (AFP). A column of vehicles carrying teams of rescuers tried to clear access using chainsaws to reach the city, under the gaze of residents worried about their loved ones.
“We went through the cyclone yesterday, cut trees and pushed back pylons […] but the big trees blocked the road”, an ambulance driver who was trying to reach Sittwe told AFP. The cyclone slammed into Myanmar’s shoreline on Sunday, causing a meter-long tidal surge and strong winds that toppled a communications tower in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine (or Arakan) state, according to images released on social networks.
“There is no phone line, no internet […] I’m worried “
Media linked to the ruling junta reported that hundreds of mobile phone masts were no longer operational. “I want to go home as soon as possible because we don’t know the situation in Sittwe”told AFP a resident of the city who requested anonymity. “There is no phone line, no internet […] I am worried about my home and my possessions. »
The chef of the board, Min Aung Hlaing, to “asked officials to arrange relief transport to Sittwe airport”, state media reported on Monday, without giving details on when help would arrive. Communication problems do not yet make it possible to assess the damage in Rakhine State, where most of the Rohingya minority lives, according to the United Nations. “The first information that goes back suggests that the damage is significant”the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Sunday evening.
In Bangladesh, where authorities claimed to have evacuated 750,000 people, Kamrul Hasan, a ministerial official, told AFP that the cyclone had caused no casualties. In the Rohingya camps, where an estimated one million people live in 190,000 bamboo and tarpaulin shelters, the damage is minimal. “About 300 shelters were destroyed by the cyclone”deputy commissioner for refugees, Shamsud Douza, told AFP.
Cyclone Mocha is the strongest storm to hit Bangladesh since Cyclone Sidr
According to this official, the authorities were now distributing bamboo, tarpaulins and various materials so that the affected Rohingya could rebuild their shelters. The risks of landslides in the camps are also low “due to scanty rainfall”. “The sky has become clear. Cyclone Mocha is the strongest storm to hit Bangladesh since Cyclone Sidr”Azizur Rahman, director of Bangladesh’s meteorology department, told AFP.
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On the Bangladeshi island of Shapuree, residents were busy repairing their damaged homes and digging through the rubble to salvage belongings scattered at Mocha Crossing. In November 2007, Sidr ravaged the southern coast of Bangladesh, killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
In recent years, improved weather forecasting and more efficient evacuations have drastically reduced the number of cyclone fatalities. Sometimes called hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific, these cyclones pose a regular threat to the northern Indian Ocean coasts, where tens of millions of people live.
Scientists have warned that cyclones are getting more powerful in some parts of the world due to global warming.
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