One of the strongest-ever storms to hit country leaves trail of destruction in Rakhine and Chin states
People cross a broken bridge at the Khaung Dote Khar Rohingya refugee camp in Sittwe, on May 15 after Cyclone Mocha made a landfall. (Photo: AFP)
The Church has dispatched aid materials to the hardest-hit regions of Myanmar after deadly Cyclone Mocha battered the Southeast Asian country on May 14.
Myanmar’s ruling junta put the death toll at three, while the shadow National Unity Government pegged the number of deaths, in one of the strongest-ever storms to hit the country, at 18.
Father Nereus Tun Min, director of Catholic charity Karuna Pyay, active in the hard-hit port city of Rakhine on the western coast and southern Chin state, said, “We have sent rice, oil, onion and tarpaulins to 40 families whose homes were damaged in Kyaukphyu township.”
“We used our Lenten fund for the emergency response,” Father Tun Min told UCA News.
After the storm left a trail of destruction in Rakhine, the military-ruled government declared 17 townships as a natural disaster-affected area on May 15.
The priest said they are in touch with the national office of the Church's social arm, Karuna, to provide relief items in Sittwe, Kyauktaw and in Kyaukphyu township which are among the worst-affected areas. Many residences, including the clergy’s house in Sittwe, were badly damaged, the priest said.
“Communications remain cut in Sittwe and Kyauktaw. It’s also difficult to reach there due to transportation problems,” the priest added.
Cyclone Mocha hit Myanmar and Bangladesh on May 14 packing winds of up to 248 kilometers per hour and copious amounts of rainfall. The storm was reported to be the strongest cyclone of the 16 that have occurred so far this year.
As strong winds swept many parts of Myanmar's coast, communication towers, trees, and houses were badly damaged.
In Christian majority Chin state, bordering the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the west, communication networks that were only recently restored after being cut following the military coup in February 2021 have been disrupted.
Chin state is a stronghold of rebels who have been fighting against military rule in Myanmar since the coup.
Paletwa township, which houses many internally displaced people in the civil war-torn nation, was hit hard by Cyclone Mocha.
“We are yet to learn what's happening as we don’t have communication with the people in Paletwa,” a Church source who did not wish to be named told UCA News.
A Church social worker based in Hakah, the capital of Chin state, said, “About 1,000 houses and several Catholic and Baptist churches in six townships, including Hakah, Matupi, and Falam, were damaged.”
According to the United Nations, Cyclone Mocha was one of the strongest cyclones to ever hit Myanmar.
“Few houses have escaped damage in Sittwe and there is widespread destruction of flimsy bamboo longhouses in displacement camps,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on May.15.
In 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta which left more than 135,000 people dead and damaged tens of thousands of homes.
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