Myanmar raises death toll from Cyclone Mocha to 54, but full extent of damage still unknown
Source: AP
By GRANT PECK today
BANGKOK (AP) — At least 54 people were killed and more than 185,000 buildings damaged in Myanmar by a powerful cyclone last weekend, state television MRTV reported Thursday.
Communication difficulties in the affected areas, where infrastructure was already poor, and the military government’s tight control over information leave the actual extent of casualties and destruction unclear.
Cyclone Mocha roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Sunday with high winds and rain slamming a corner of neighboring Bangladesh and a wider swath of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It made landfall near Rakhine’s Sittwe township with winds of up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour before weakening to a tropical depression Monday as it moved inland.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said widescale destruction of homes and infrastructure was seen throughout Rakhine state.
Guam residents stock up, batten down as dangerous Super Typhoon Mawar closes in
Source: AP
HONOLULU (AP) — President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration as an intensifying Super Typhoon Mawar approached Guam, where anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere and emergency shelters began to fill ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. Pacific territory in two decades.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.
Federal assistance will be needed to save lives and property and “mitigate the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Guerrero said in a letter to the president requesting a “pre-landfall emergency” for Guam. Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures — many homes on the far-flung island are made of wood and tin — to consider moving.
With rain from the storm’s outer bands already falling on the territory, National Weather Service said the storm had been upgraded to a Category 4 “super typhoon,” meaning maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or greater. Its center was about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of Guam late Tuesday local time and was moving to the north-northwest, according to the weather service.
