The devastating Cyclone Mocha has left a trail of destruction in both Bangladesh and Myanmar, claiming three lives and millions of others displaced.
Touted as the second most intense cyclone in the Bay of Bengal since 1982, Cyclone Mocha made landfall on Sunday afternoon in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar and Myanmar’s Rakhine state near Sittwe township.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cyclone hit its highest point, blasting winds at a speed exceeding 260 kmph along the coasts of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Thousands of people from the world’s biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh, a home to about a million Rohingyas who fled there years ago from neighboring Myanmar, were evacuated to safer zones at the monasteries, and schools.
The International Organisation for Migration Chief of Mission in Bangladesh, Abdusattor Esoev, tweeted a video of the disaster management teams working to rescue people from the refugee camp at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.
From streets converted into rivers to the inundated Myanmar port city of Sittwe, leaving at least 12,000 houses destroyed, electricity and wi-fi connections disrupted, crops damaged and hundreds of uprooted trees, the visuals of the destruction caused by Cyclone Mocha have gone viral on the internet.
In a video, a telecom tower can be seen brought down by the high winds.
Though around 300,000 people were evacuated to safer areas before the storm hit Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, the disaster management team continues to retrieve people reportedly trapped in their homes in low-lying areas and also sent food, medicine, and aid to the storm-hit regions.