Massive evacuation campaign underway as deadly cyclone approaches Cox's Bazar

The country today (May 13) launched an intensified evacuation campaign targeting half a million people to be moved to safety as the met office maximized its warning signal for Cox's Bazar and adjoining areas as the deadly cyclone Mocha is approaching with higher intensity.

 "Cyclone 'Mocha' is coming. We've kept ready the cyclone centres and taken all types of preparations to tackle it," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said while opening Institution of Engineers convention in Dhaka city.

She said the cyclone could disrupt electricity and gas supplies and particularly cause water stagnation in coastal areas, creating temporary sufferings and urged all to prepare for the impact.

The Cox's Bazar region is expected to bear the main brunt of the cyclone where officials said an extensive preparedness was underway.

"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," deputy commissioner or administrative chief of the coastal district Muhammad Shahin Imran told reporters.

He said some 8,600 Red Crescent volunteers and others joined a campaign asking people at risk to move to safety alongside the government officials while the district administration mobilized transports to carry them to the cyclone shelters.

The development came as the met office heightened the "great danger signal no 8 to 10" in a scale of 10 for Cox's Bazar and adjoining areas as the Mocha advanced visibly to make a landfall in Cox's Bazar coast anytime from 6 am to 6 pm on Sunday.

"The cyclone is approaching at a speed of 8 to 10 kilometres speed with winds packing up to 175 kilomtres while during the landfall the speed could be as high as 190 kilomtres," a met office spokesman told newsmen.

"The cyclone could cause tidal surges from 8 to 12 feet beyond the normal tide."

He said the met office heightened the warning signal to the highest level in the scale of 10 to indicate its wraths and feared the Saint Martin's island, Teknaf and Cox's Bazar town to bear the worst brunt of the storm and northern Myanmar coast.

Hundreds fled the St. Martin's as the most powerful cyclone in nearly two decades barreled towards Bangladesh and neighbouring Myanmar coasts.

BSS’ Cox's Bazar correspondent reported a state of calm was being witnessed in the town since the morning amid drizzles while residents of the low lying areas of the town and its adjacent areas started moving to cyclone shelters.

He said the Pouro Preparatory High School in the town alone sheltered over 200 people from low lying Samity Para area of the beach town.

"Our home is in the low lying areas while the surges are likely to inundate the area. So, we have taken shelter with my children and wife here but still we are frightened," one Shafiqul Alam told BSS.

Zahura Begum, another resident of the town, said her husband was sick and unable to move fast in case of emergency and "so, we took refuge here in advance".

The deputy commissioner said the cyclonic storm might cause landslides in the hilly areas of the district and works were underway to relocate people living in risky points of foothills to safer places.

There are concerns the cyclone could impact the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, where close to a million Rohingyas live in makeshift shelters. Red warning flags have been raised there.

Officials said many of the Rohingyas living in certain risky areas were moved to safer places at community centres.

"This cyclone (Mocha) is the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr of 2007," chief meteorologist Azizur Rahman said.

The Sidr had hit Bangladesh's southwestern coast killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.