Several villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine State were demolished by Cyclone Mocha on Sunday afternoon after the storm hit the country’s coastal areas, according to local sources.
The affected communities are located across Sittwe, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, and Minbya townships.
The Myanmar military-owned Myawaddy Channel announced on Monday that Cyclone Mocha had damaged 864 homes nationwide, 588 of which were in Rakhine. Two of the three storm-related deaths were also in the state, with the other occurring in the Ayeyarwady delta region.
Nearly 90 percent of the houses in the town of Kyauktaw, 60 miles north of the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, were destroyed after the storm made landfall, locals said. Also hit were at least three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), where more than 1,500 people had been sheltering from armed conflict, according to a spokesperson from a local youth group.
Kyaw Soe Lwin, the vice chair of Kyauktaw Youth Association, said that only a few homes in the town, which is located on the Kaladan River, were still intact at the time of reporting.
“All of the buildings that were not sturdily built were destroyed. The IDP camps were also toppled to the ground,” he said. “This is only the situation in the town—we can’t reach the rural areas.”
There are five IDP camps in Kyauktaw, but those residing there had been relocated before the cyclone hit Rakhine State, Kyaw Soe Lwin explained, adding that most of the shelters had been made of bamboo and wood, leaving them vulnerable to strong winds.
A woman in her 60s from Kyauktaw was reportedly killed as these winds hit the town on Sunday, but the youth association representative said he was not able to confirm her death.
“There are many cases where trees fell on houses and damaged roofs. The winds also tore open the roof of the central market and all of the commodities got rained on. So we are expecting a rise in food prices,” he said.
In Oke Kyut, a Kyauktaw village of 290 households on the eastern bank of Kaladan, only around 10 buildings were left undamaged by the storm, a local said on Monday morning.
A man from the 300-household village of Yoke Chaung in Mrauk-U told Myanmar Now that the majority of the houses in his community were also lost in the storm but no one was injured.
“Both bigger, stronger brick houses and smaller wooden houses were destroyed,” he said.
Yoke Chaung’s 1,300 residents had taken refuge in a local monastery and in the school, part of which was also severely damaged.
In the 80-household Nga Swel, also in Mrauk-U, Cyclone Mocha razed nearly the whole village, including the monastery and community hall, according to a report by local media outlet Western News, which cited the monastery’s abbot, Ven Pyinnyavanssa.
“The wind started blowing at around 1pm and the monastery started to fall apart at around 4pm,” he said. “Everything was destroyed, so the villagers have nowhere to stay.”
Both the abbot and the local in Yoke Chaung said on Sunday evening that they were concerned about the rising tides expected that night.
Khine Min Shin, a member of the Mrauk-U Township’s disaster response committee, also told Myanmar Now on Monday morning that the phone lines were not working, making it difficult to gather updated information on the impact of the storm.
“There are places where whole villages have been destroyed, but that is what we heard initially. Since communications to most areas have been lost, we can’t collect accurate information yet,” he said.
The only telecommunications provider that operates in the township is junta-owned Mytel.
Myanmar Now was unable to reach residents or reporters in Sittwe, where communications lines were also down after winds over 130 miles per hour were recorded when the cyclone hit the city on Sunday, knocking down a telecoms tower. Flooding in the streets due to a tidal surge reportedly displaced several residents in Lanmadaung ward.
The storm hit inland parts of the country such as Chin State and Magway Region, which border Rakhine State to the north and northeast, on Sunday night and reached Sagaing Region and Kachin State on Monday, according to Myanmar’s meteorological department. While it weakened as it moved inland, heavy rainfall has increased the risk of landslides.
Myanmar Now is still trying to gather information on the extent of the cyclone’s damage in Sagaing and Magway.
