Cyclone Mocha hit the coasts of Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sunday afternoon. That made it Bangladesh Meteorological Department announced. Due to the threat of the tropical storm in Bangladesh, at least 300,000 people have already been taken to safer areas as a precaution. In Myanmar, 100,000 people were also evacuated. Several deaths were reported in Myanmar on Sunday morning due to the strong wind and rain, the AP news agency reported.
The region is therefore vulnerable to natural disasters. Irrespective of the storm, some 6 million people depend on emergency aid anyway. The refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, a Muslim minority, are crowded together, are particularly at risk. Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which lies on the path of Cyclone Mocha, is currently home to nearly a million refugees who have escaped the military regime in neighboring Myanmar. The UN and aid workers in Bangladesh have already prepared tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams. According to Titon Mitra, a local UN envoy, the lives of are certain two million people at stake.
Read also: In Pictures: Bangladesh and Myanmar prepare for severe hurricane Mocha
The hurricane, the strongest in the region in a decade, is accompanied by wind speeds of up to 259 kilometers per hour. It places the hurricane in Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, a classification used in meteorology to classify tropical cyclones according to their strength. Experts expect a lot of damage to the local infrastructure. The storm may cause tidal waves up to four meters high on the coast.
Mocha, currently approaching the coasts of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and the border with Myanmar, is expected to move northeastward, eventually reaching the coasts of Cox’s Bazar and northern Myanmar near Sittwe by noon.