Over 5 lakh evacuated as ‘Cyclone Mocha’ barrels towards Bangladesh coastline

Dhaka/Cox’s Bazar, May 13

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Authorities in Bangladesh on Saturday launched a massive evacuation campaign to relocate close to half a million (five lakh) people along the south-eastern coastlines as a “very dangerous” tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall in the country, threatening the Rohingya refugee camp, the world’s largest.

Cyclone Mocha, one of the most powerful cyclones seen in Bangladesh in nearly two decades, is predicted to barrel towards the Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Sunday.

“Cyclone ‘Mocha’ is coming. We have kept the cyclone centres and taken all types of preparations to tackle it,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said. The evacuation drive was taken as the maritime port of Cox’s Bazar has been advised to hoist danger signal no 10 as the cyclone is likely to intensify further and move in a north-north-westerly direction.

Meteorologists said the storm’s path is set to affect Bangladesh’s south-eastern border district of Cox’s Bazar where over a million Rohingya refugees live.

Bangladeshi authorities have set up 55 shelters at Bhasan Char offshore island, where nearly 30,000 of the Rohingya refugees have been relocated from the mainland. “The district administration has turned social, educational, and religious institutions as makeshift shelters alongside 576 designated cyclone shelters in Cox’s Bazar to accommodate over half a million people,” DC Muhammad Shahin Imran told reporters.

“This cyclone is the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr of 2007,” Chief Meteorologist Azizur Rahman said. Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh’s southwestern coast killing more than 3,000 people and inflicting damages to the tune of billions of dollars.

On Friday, the World Meteorological Organisation feared a storm surge of 2-2.5 metres over the weekend that was likely to inundate low-lying areas of North Myanmar as well as parts of Bangladesh where flash floods and landslides were also possible.