Irrawaddy-May 14
Extremely powerful Cyclone Mocha made landfall in northern Rakhine State near the Bangladeshi border on Sunday, bringing torrential rains and gusts of wind strong enough to fell telecommunications towers, uproot trees and cause flash floods, among other forms of havoc.
The cyclone with a maximum wind speed of 259 km per hour, equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, hit the state capital Sittwe on Myanmar’s western coast on Sunday morning. It is the strongest cyclone to hit Myanmar in more than a decade. Residents reported heavy rains and strong winds that uprooted trees and blew off roofs.
Before the internet connection in the area was cut off by the storm, some residents took to Facebook, Myanmar’s favorite social media, to share pictures of uprooted big trees, blown away roofs, and deserted and rain-drenched thoroughfares in Sittwe. Reports of similar havoc wreaked by the storm came in from other towns like Gwa and Kyaukphyu. Cyclone Mocha is the strongest storm to hit Myanmar since 2010’s Cyclone Giri, which had sustained winds of 230 km per hour and killed at least 45 people. In 2008, more than 135,000 people were killed when Cyclone Nargis hit the country’s Irrawaddy Delta.
Read more at:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/cyclone-mocha-wreaks-havoc-in-myanmars-northern-rakhine.html
