YANGON/DHAKA, (Reuters) – State television in Myanmar said yesterday that a cyclone had hit the country’s west coast on the Bay of Bengal and could trigger a tidal surge of up to 12 feet (3.7 metres) in some coastal towns.
MRTV said Cyclone Giri had struck the coast near the town of Kyaukphyu, with winds reaching 100 miles per hour (160 kph). Telephone contact with coastal towns was interrupted shortly after the cyclone reached the area.
The authorities had earlier advised residents to leave low-lying areas along the coast.
Coastal and delta regions in the Southeast Asian country are often hit by strong storms. More than 130,000 people were killed or went missing when Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta in May 2008. The Bangladesh meteorological department had earlier warned that what it termed a cyclonic storm could hit the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast late yesterday.
It said the storm, at that point centred 390 km (240 miles) from Chittagong port, packed winds up to 115 kph (70 mph) and that ships and deep-sea fishing vessels had been asked to move closer to shore.
Nearly half a million Bangladeshis were left homeless by three days of storms that killed at least 15 people earlier this month.
Storms batter the poor south Asian country every year. Cyclone Sidr, which killed nearly 3,500 people and displaced some two million in November 2007, was the most severe in the last five years.
