Thousands of volunteers have been deployed in Burma and Bangladesh and coastal areas are being evacuated Thursday in anticipation of the arrival of Mocha, the first cyclone of the year in the Bay of Bengal.
According to the Indian Meteorological Office, Mocha is expected to make landfall around noon on Sunday in the border region between the two Asian countries, with wind speeds of up to 145 km/h.
The tsunami caused by the cyclone will be in the range of 1.5 to 2 meters, the bureau predicts, which could cause significant damage, particularly on the Bangladeshi side where the area is home to camps housing several hundred thousand refugees. Rohingya.
There are 10,000 volunteers at those camps and in the nearby town of Cox’s Bazar, according to Ahmadul Haque, director of cyclone response.
“We especially warn people living on the slopes of the hills as the cyclone will bring heavy rains that can cause landslides,” he told AFP.
Bangladesh has also banned fishing boats from going out to sea.
On the Burmese side, residents have already temporarily relocated in anticipation of the cyclone.
“Since it is at the entrance of the river, our village cannot withstand even a small storm,” Thar Tin Maung, who settled in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, told AFP.
“Some people will not be able to leave the village and I worry about them.”
Cyclones, sometimes called hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific, pose a regular threat to the northern shores of the Indian Ocean, home to tens of millions of people.
In November 2007, Cyclone Sidr ravaged south-west Bangladesh, killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis left at least 138,000 dead or missing in Burma, the worst natural disaster in the country’s history.