Cyclone batters Rakhine: ‘I can’t get through to Maungdaw. The last I heard, the winds were rising’

Cyclone Komen battered Myanmar’s coastal Rakhine state on Thursday, with strong winds toppling trees and severing phone lines.

On Friday morning, leading meteorologist U Tun Lwin told Coconuts Yangon the storm was moving northwest but Chin and Rakhine states remained vulnerable to its effects.

Floods in low-lying areas of Maungdaw forced residents to evacuate their homes, the Myanmar Times reported.

Phone lines to the town went down in the afternoon, with one Yangon resident telling the paper: “I can’t get through to Maungdaw. The last I heard, the winds were rising.”

Officials in Mrauk-U said trees and lamp posts were felled and parts of the city flooded but reported no fatalities.

Floods were also reported in state capital Sittwe.

Photo / U Tun Lwin

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