Cyclone Mocha Makes Landfall Near Bangladesh-Myanmar Border, 195-kmph Winds Create Havoc in Bay of Bengal

Cyclone Mocha, one of the most powerful cyclones in Bay of Bengal, began to crash ashore at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Sunday, uprooting trees and bringing driving rain to a region home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees.

Packing winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour Mocha hit between Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees live in camps largely made up of flimsy shelters, and Myanmar’s Sittwe, the office said.

Here are the latest updates on Cyclone Mocha:

• Cyclone Mocha intensified into the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane as it barrelled through the Bay of Bengal towards Myanmar and Bangladesh, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said on Sunday.
• The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 knots (259 km/h), the centre said in a forecast update, equivalent to a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind scale.
• The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that the cyclone is likely to move north-northeasterly across Rakhine State in Myanmar and “completely cross” southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, which host the world’s largest Rohingya refugee camp.
• As Cyclone intensifies on Sudnay and winds are getting stronger, Saint Martin’s, the one and only coral island of Bangladesh, may go temporarily underwater.
• 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.