What to know about Cyclone Mora: Northeastern states in the eye of storm
Even as Bangladesh scrambled to evacuate nearly 1 million people from low-lying areas, Cyclone Mora made landfall early May 30 morning as a Category 1 cyclone between Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department was quoted as saying by various news reports.
The powerful cyclone has already damaged several houses with packing winds of up to 117 kilometres per hour and is expected to move towards India's Northeast.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), it is expected to intensify into a "severe cyclonic storm" in the next 24 hours with wind speeds in the range of 100-150 kilometres per hour.
As a result, heavy rainfall is predicted to lash the states of Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland on May 30 and 31.
How did it start?
The cyclone, which has already hit Bangladesh, formed after heavy rains in Sri Lanka that caused floods and landslides killing at least 180 people — the worst flooding in 14 years on the island has affected the lives of more than half a million people. More than 100 people remain missing, according to a BBC report.
Storms hit Bangladesh every year. In May last year, almost half a million people faced heavy destruction and losses in low-lying coastal areas such as Barisal and Chittagong.
Small eye popping out on #CycloneMora just prior to landfall. Sign of strengthening. pic.twitter.com/TA9V97sH2D
— Money Hurricane (@MoneyHurricane) May 29, 2017
What is worse is that the country is still recovering from flash floods that hit its northeastern parts in April, affecting millions of people.
According to a Reuters report, prices of rice reached record high while state reserves are at a 10-year low in the wake of flooding that wiped out around 700,000 tonnes of rice.
How does it affect India?
According to skymetweather.com, heavy rains have already begun over Mizoram, Tripura and other northeastern states.
#CycloneMora hit #Mizoram state#Watch the video pic.twitter.com/VEfErrk5Z0
— North-East India (@NEIndia_ANI) May 30, 2017
As predicted earlier by the IMD, very heavy rainfall is likely to lash the states of Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland on May 30 and 31.
According to IMD data, gale winds speed reaching 60-70km/hour gusting to 80km/hour would prevail over Mizoram and Tripura on May 30. Squally winds speed reaching 45-55km/hour gusting to 65km/hour would prevail over South Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur and along and off West Bengal coast today.
Expected damage
Weathermen have predicted not-so-severe damages in Mizoram and Tripura. The IMD has warned of minor damages to power and communication lines due to breaking of branches besides damage to paddy crops, banana, papaya trees and orchards. Damages to thatched huts, pucca and kutcha roads are also expected.
Also, a Accuweather report says that there could be significant flooding in the cities of Guwahati, Jorhat and Dibrugarh in Assam.
Floods are an annual feature in the state of Assam. Last year, more than 1.88 lakh people were affected by the swirling waters of the swollen Brahmaputra river and its tributaries. More than 300 villages were overrun by the floods, while 16,240 hectares of crop land was under water with standing crops there destroyed. The year before that (2015), Assam floods affected 1.5 million people in nearly 1,600 villages.
Thankfully, the cyclonic storm is not expected to make a landfall in India and will only see heavy to very heavy rainfall in the range of 70mm to 110mm.
The IMD also issued a warning for heavy rainfall over the next two days in isolated places in the northeastern states.
The cyclonic storm will also reportedly help the southwest monsoon reach Kerala in the next 24 hours.
The IMD also warned of squally winds off the Andaman Islands, West Bengal’s coasts besides Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura among other places in the next 48 hours.
Why Mora
The cyclone was named Mora, a Thai word, meaning "star of the sea". According to the followed procedure of naming tropical cyclones over north Indian Ocean, it was the turn of a name suggested by Thailand in the list of assigned names.
The next cyclone in the region will be called Ockhi, a name from the list of cyclone names given by Bangladesh.