Tropical cyclone Mocha intensified to become “very dangerous”, the World Meteorological Organisation has said, warning of violent winds, floods and possible landslides in Bangladesh which could hit the world’s biggest refugee camp in Cox’s bazar.
Cyclone Mocha is predicted to make landfall on Sunday near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, according to India’s meteorological office, packing winds of up to 175km/h (108mph).
The office predicted a storm surge of between two and two-and-a-half metres (six to eight feet) for the low-lying coastal region, which on the Bangladeshi side is home to sprawling camps hosting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees. Most of them fled there after a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
UN refugee agency spokesperson Olga Sarrado said preparations were under way for a partial evacuation of the camp, if needed. The agency was also preparing tens of thousands of hot meals and jerrycans, she said.
The World Health Organisation said it was pre-positioning 33 mobile medical teams and 40 ambulances as well as emergency surgery and cholera kits for the camp.
In Myanmar, the WHO was pre-positioning 500,000 water purification tablets among other supplies which amount to the entire monsoon season stocks.
“If this turns into the level of cyclone we fear, we really need to be ready,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris told a briefing.
Residents of low-lying villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state left their homes and flocked to the state capital, Sittwe, on Friday, with about a thousand preparing to shelter at one monastery in the town, AFP correspondents said.
Some set down blankets and staked out sleeping places while unpacking provisions.
Thant Zaw, 42, said he had lost several family members when Cyclone Nargis ravaged southern Myanmar in 2008, killing more than 130,000 people in the country’s worst natural disaster.
“I told my family we should shelter at this monastery,” he told AFP. “I have six children and I can’t lose my family again.”
Myanmar’s junta authorities were supervising evacuations from coastal villages along the Rakhine coast, according to state media, which did not say how many people had been moved. Any boats leaving shore in Rakhine from Friday afternoon would face legal action, the junta said.
Heavy winds and rain could trigger flooding and landslides farther inland in Myanmar and Bangladesh, the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs said on Friday.
Around 6 million people across Rakhine and Myanmar’s north-west were already in need of humanitarian assistance, it added.
Bangladesh was yet to carry out any evacuations, but officials said hundreds of cyclone shelters had been readied to house evacuated people.
Bangladesh was last hit by a superstorm in November 2007 when Cyclone Sidr ripped through the country’s south-west, killing more than 3,000 people and causing damage worth billions of dollars.
