Cyclone Mocha Landfall

Some 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and Bangladesh ahead of Cyclone Mocha making landfall, as authorities and aid agencies scrambled to avert heavy casualties from one of the strongest storms to hit the region in recent years.

Heavy rainfall along with gale is occurring over the north Myanmar-Bangladesh coasts and the forward sector of the eye wall is entering into these coastal areas, the India Meteorological Department said.

As Cyclone Mocha intensifies and winds are getting stronger, Saint Martin's, the one and only coral island of Bangladesh, may go temporarily underwater, according to the head of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), reported Dhaka Tribune.

Cyclone Mocha intensified into a category five hurricane on Sunday, hours ahead of its predicted landfall in Myanmar and Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people evacuated from the coasts were taking shelter.

The peripheral effect of Cyclone Mocha has begun over the coastal areas of Chattorgram and Barishal divisions, according to the latest bulletin of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Dhaka Tribune reported.

Authorities in Bangladesh on Saturday launched a massive evacuation campaign to relocate close to half a million people along the southeastern coastlines as a "very dangerous" tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall in the country.

Cyclone Mocha is likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm today over the southeast and adjoining areas of central Bay of Bengal, officials have said.

The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm -- Mocha -- overnight and it is likely to make landfall between Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Myanmar, officials said on Thursday morning.

Some 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and Bangladesh ahead of Cyclone Mocha making landfall, as authorities and aid agencies scrambled to avert heavy casualties from one of the strongest storms to hit the region in recent years.

Heavy rainfall along with gale is occurring over the north Myanmar-Bangladesh coasts and the forward sector of the eye wall is entering into these coastal areas, the India Meteorological Department said.

As Cyclone Mocha intensifies and winds are getting stronger, Saint Martin's, the one and only coral island of Bangladesh, may go temporarily underwater, according to the head of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), reported Dhaka Tribune.

Cyclone Mocha intensified into a category five hurricane on Sunday, hours ahead of its predicted landfall in Myanmar and Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people evacuated from the coasts were taking shelter.

The peripheral effect of Cyclone Mocha has begun over the coastal areas of Chattorgram and Barishal divisions, according to the latest bulletin of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Dhaka Tribune reported.

Authorities in Bangladesh on Saturday launched a massive evacuation campaign to relocate close to half a million people along the southeastern coastlines as a "very dangerous" tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall in the country.

Cyclone Mocha is likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm today over the southeast and adjoining areas of central Bay of Bengal, officials have said.

The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm -- Mocha -- overnight and it is likely to make landfall between Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Myanmar, officials said on Thursday morning.