The Myanmar port city of Sittwe was inundated on Sunday by storm surges brought on by a powerful cyclone, according to The Daily Star.
Parts of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, were flooded, while winds of up to 130 miles each hour tore away tin rooftops and cut down an communications tower.
"SCS “Mocha” over Myanmar weakened into a Cyclonic Storm at 0230 hours IST of 15th May over Myanmar near latitude 23.5°N and longitude 95.3°E about 450 km NNE of Sittwe (Myanmar), 260 km of north-northeast of Nyaung-U (Myanmar) and 420 km ENE of Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh)," the IMD said.
Al Jazeera reported that rescue workers in Myanmar said two people were killed in a landslide, and local media said a man was killed in Myanmar when a tree fell on him.
The most powerful storm to strike the Bay of Bengal in more than a decade swept through Sittwe, turning its streets into rivers.
The cyclone caused damage to houses, electrical transformers, mobile phone towers, boats, and lampposts in the Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, and Gwa townships, according to the military information office in Myanmar.
It said that the storm also tore the roofs off of sport buildings on the Coco Islands, which are about 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of Yangon, which is the largest city in the country.
A rescue team from the country's eastern Shan state declared on its Facebook page that they had recuperated the collections of a covered couple when an avalanche brought about by weighty downpour hit their home in Tachileik municipality.
Al Jazeera reported that Tin Nyein Oo, who volunteers in Sittwe shelters, said that more than 20,000 people are sheltering in sturdy structures like monasteries, pagodas, and schools on the city's highlands. More than 4,000 of Sittwe's 300,000 residents were evacuated to other cities.
"Very Severe Cyclonic Storm 'Mocha' weakened into a severe cyclonic storm over Myanmar," the India Meteorological Department reported in the interim.
It added that the system is continuing to weaken and will develop into a cyclonic storm within the next few hours.
Additionally, Mocha spared a crowded cluster of refugee camps in Bangladesh's lowlands.
According to The Daily Star, Rohingya refugees in densely populated camps in Cox's Bazar in the southeast of the country hunkered down inside their ramshackle homes in Bangladesh, where authorities moved approximately 300,000 people to safer areas prior to the storm.
Tourists prevented from going to beaches in Bengal
An official stated that as cyclone Mocha made landfall along the coasts of Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sunday, Disaster Management Force personnel are keeping an eye on the sea resort towns in West Bengal and preventing tourists from visiting the beaches.
Personnel from the Disaster Management Force were on high alert along the coastal areas of Digha and Mandarmani in the district of Purba Medinipur and Bakkhali and Sundarbans in the district of South 24 Parganas.
According to the official, as the sea became choppy, seven groups of NDRF personnel, including divers, were deployed in the Digha-Mandarmani coastal areas.
In addition, over 100 members of the state disaster management group have been stationed at Bakkhali sea beach in the South 24 Parganas district to monitor tourist traffic.
"We are not allowing tourists to move closer to the sea which has turned choppy. We are regulating movements on the sea beach. We have been asked to be on guard for the next few hours," Bikash Sadhu, one NDRF team member said.
Bappaditya Mukherjee, a tourist from Kolkata holidaying in Bakkhali, said, "We did not go to the sea beach today. It was quite hot. We plan to go near the sea when we are allowed.”
Arrangements have additionally been made to clear occupants of seaside regions in the two areas in the event of crisis.
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