A tropical cyclone packing winds up to 240kph battered Myanmar's west coast yesterday, causing some damage at beach resorts but resulting in no immediate injuries, officials said.
Cyclone Mala passed through Gwa, a resort 190km northwest of Yangon, an official from the meteorological department said. The cyclone produced massive waves and flooding, knocked down trees and forced some visitors to evacuate to higher ground, said the official, who spoke on condition anonymity.
The storm on Friday damaged several houses on nearby Haingyi island and forced South Korea's Daewoo International Corp to abandon oil platforms in northern Rakhine state, a Daewoo employee said.
"Several houses were destroyed and many houses lost their roofs in the storm, which hit Haingyi island with a wind speed of more than 120kph per hour," said a senior meteorological department officer, who also requested anonymity as is customary among Myanmar officials.
Haingyi island is 200km southwest of Yangon.
Storm warnings were also issued for coastal areas in southern Bangladesh, though there was "almost no chance of it coming to Bangladesh's coast," Akram Hossain, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told reporters.
Still, hundreds of fishermen returned to shore to escape the rough seas in the Bay of Bengal and thousands of Red Crescent Society volunteers were put on standby should people need help evacuating.
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