Wind gusts could reach 260 km/h. Volunteers evacuate Rohingyas from “at-risk areas” to more solid structures such as schools.
It brings in its wake rain and gusts of wind exceeding 200 km/h. The powerful cyclone Mocha hits Bangladesh and Burma on Sunday May 15, uprooting trees, carrying sheet metal houses into camps for displaced Rohingyas. It follows a trajectory between Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, where 1 million refugees live, and Sittwe in Burma, according to the Bangladeshi meteorological service.
In the coastal city of 150,000 inhabitants, images posted on social networks show streets transformed into torrents as the cyclone, the most powerful in more than 10 years in the Bay of Bengal, passes. “The water is gradually risingWai Hun Aung, a social worker from Sittwe, told AFP. The tide blocked the sewer located in front of our school… Soon, we will take our things upstairs”.
According to the latest update from the US Typhoon Warning Center, Sunday, May 15. A Category 5 hurricane is the highest classification on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The gusts of wind could even reach 260 km / h, according to the Zoom Earth website, which classified it in the category of super cyclones.
Thousands of people evacuated
Authorities said thousands of volunteers were evacuating Rohingya from “at-risk areas” to stronger structures such as schools. But “all the Rohingyas in the camps are in danger”warned the Deputy Commissioner for Refugees of Bangladesh, Shamsud Douza.
On Saturday, residents of Sittwe piled their belongings and pets into cars, trucks and tuk-tuks to head for higher places. Mocha should cause a tidal wave of up to 4 meters. 500 km away, in Yangon, the economic capital of Burma, the inhabitants were already feeling the rain and the wind on Sunday. The Myanmar Red Cross said in a statement that it “prepared to respond to a major emergency”.
In Bangladesh, 190,000 people have been evacuated from Cox’s Bazar and nearly 100,000 from the nearby city of Chittagong, authorities said. “They were taken to nearly 4,000 cyclone shelters”, said divisional commissioner Aminur Rahman. Rohingya refugees have been taken from “at-risk areas” to community centers, while thousands have fled the tourist island of St Maarten, located in Mocha’s path.