Cyclone Mocha set to crash over Myanmar, Bangladesh

KYAUKTAW - The Bay of Bengal's most powerful cyclone for over a decade was set to make landfall on Sunday, with hundreds of thousands evacuated from the coasts of Myanmar and Bangladesh taking shelter from driving winds and rain.

Cyclone Mocha was packing winds of up to 240km/h, according to the Zoom Earth website, which classed it as a Super Cyclone.

It is forecast to make landfall between Cox's Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees live in camps largely made up of flimsy shelters, and Sittwe on Myanmar's western Rakhine coast.

"The wind is getting stronger at the moment," rescue worker Kyaw Kyaw Khaing told AFP from Pauktaw town, about 25 kilometres inland from Sittwe, and where he said around 3,000 people had arrived to seek shelter.

"We distributed enough food for one or two meals to the people evacuated to temporary shelters. I don't think we will be able to send any food today due to the weather." 

Thousands left Sittwe on Saturday, packing into trucks, cars and tuk-tuks and heading for higher ground inland as meteorologists warned of a storm surge of up to 3.5 metres.

Bangladeshi authorities moved 190,000 people in Cox's Bazar and nearly 100,000 in Chittagong to safety, divisional commissioner Aminur Rahman told AFP late Saturday.

The rain and wind were felt in Myanmar's commercial hub Yangon, around 500 kilometres away, residents said Sunday.

The Myanmar Red Cross Society said it was "preparing for a major emergency response".

In Bangladesh, authorities have banned Rohingya refugees from constructing concrete homes, fearing it may incentivise them to settle permanently rather than return to Myanmar, which they fled five years ago following a brutal military crackdown.

The camps are generally slightly inland, but most of them are built on hillsides, exposing them to the threat of landslides.

Forecasters expect the cyclone to bring a deluge of rain, which can trigger landslips.