At least 3 killed, over 1,000 buildings damaged as Cyclone Mocha batters Myanmar
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Fallen trees are seen after Cyclone Mocha crashed ashore in Kyauktaw, Myanmar’s Rakhine state on May 14.
PHOTO: AFP
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NAYPYITAW - At least three people were killed, 13 injured and more than 1,000 buildings damaged when Cyclone Mocha
Refugee camps in south-east Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar escaped the worst of the storm, although many bamboo huts were damaged, said residents of the region.
It was Myanmar’s strife-torn Rakhine state that bore the brunt of the storm, which unleashed winds of up to 210kmh that ripped roofs off homes and brought a storm surge that inundated the provincial capital of Sittwe on Sunday.
More than 850 houses, 64 schools, 14 health facilities and seven communication towers in Myanmar were destroyed or damaged by the storm, one of the most powerful to hit the country in years, military-owned Myawaddy TV news channel said.
A junta spokesman did not immediately answer a telephone call from Reuters seeking comment.
A spokesman for the Arakan Army militia force in Rakhine state said it was using its communications equipment to gather information on the impact of the storm because civilian networks had been severely disrupted.
The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said that about six million people in the region were already in need of humanitarian assistance before the storm, among them 1.2 million people who have been internally displaced by ethnic strife.
OCHA officials were assessing damage to camps for displaced people, which are near the coast and mostly made of bamboo, as well as evacuation centres, a spokesman said.
In 2008, Cyclone Nargis swept across parts of southern Myanmar, killing nearly 140,000 people.
Before Cyclone Mocha made landfall on Sunday afternoon, about 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and Bangladesh as the authorities and aid agencies scrambled to avoid heavy casualties.
Most of the buildings in Sittwe were damaged, including the main hospital which lost parts of its roof, a resident said by telephone.
In neighbouring Chin state, which has seen heavy fighting between the junta forces and pro-democracy insurgents, activists were having difficulty trying to assess the impact of the storm in areas under a junta communications blackout. REUTERS
