The Powerful Cyclone Hits Myanmar, Kills Around 400 People
- AP Photo
VIVA – A deadly and powerful cyclone hit Myanmar on Sunday, with rescue groups warning of "a large-scale loss of life" following one of the strongest storms to ever hit the country.
Cyclone Mocha hit Myanmar's coast, and cause collapsing houses, feeling trees, bringing down telephone poles, and severely compromising communication lines in conflict-racked Rakhine state, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Myanmar’s shadow government on Tuesday said that at least 400 people have been killed and an unspecified number of people are still missing.
“I can’t control my tears,” said Aung Zaw Hein, a resident of Rakhine state’s capital city Sittwe.
Hein had seen the bodies of children, the elderly, also pregnant women lying on the ground after the cyclone.
“People are having a very hard time because they don’t have food, they don’t have a place to lay down. Some people become homeless, and shelterless, some people even become powerless. The same situation has repeated in our life for the Rohingya people," Hein explained.
Aung Zaw Hein also said he had performed Islamic funeral prayers for eight victims.