The death toll from Cyclone Mocha which barrelled through the Bay of Bengal has risen to 29, as contact was slowly restored to western Myanmar.
By Monday, rescuers evacuated about 1,000 people trapped by seawater 3.6 metres (12 feet ) deep along western Myanmar's coast after a powerful cyclone injured hundreds and cut off communications.
Strong winds injured more than 700 of about 20,000 people who were sheltering in sturdier buildings on the highlands of Sittwe township such as monasteries, pagodas and schools, according to a leader of the Rakhine Youths Philanthropic Association in Sittwe.
Residents moved to roofs and higher floors, while the wind and storm surge prevented immediate rescue.
“After 4 pm yesterday, the storm weakened a bit, but the water did not fall back. Most of them sat on the roof and at the high places of their houses the whole night. The wind blew all night,” the rescue group leader said.
Water was still about 1.5 metres (5 feet) high in flooded areas later on Monday, but rescues were being made as the wind calmed and the sun rose in the sky. He asked civil society organisations and authorities to send aid and help evacuate residents.
No enough food
Mocha made landfall near Sittwe township with winds blowing up to 209 kilometres (130 miles) per hour, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said. By midday Monday, it had weakened to a tropical depression, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The State Administration Council issued disaster declarations for 17 townships in Rakhine state.
Myanmar’s military information office said the storm had damaged houses and electrical transformers in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships. It said roofs were torn off buildings on the Coco Islands, about 425 kilometres (264 miles) southwest of the country’s largest city, Yangon.
About a dozen people were injured on Saint Martin’s Island, while some 300 homes were either destroyed or damaged, leading Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo reported.
Volunteers previously said shelters in Sittwe did not have enough food after more people arrived there seeking help.
UN agencies and aid workers in Bangladesh had prepositioned tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances in the refugee camps that house more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar.
Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming more intense more quickly, in part because of climate change.
Climate scientists say cyclones can now retain their energy for many days. Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020 continued to travel over land as a strong cyclone and caused extensive devastation.
