Shawdesh Desk:

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department in a special weather bulletin at 2:30pm on Friday asked all fishing trawlers and boats over the north Bay of Bengal to take shelter immediately as the very severe cyclonic storm continued getting stronger as it tracked steadily toward Bangladesh-Myanmar coast.

The BMD raised storm alert to local warning signal number four for all four maritime ports, implying that the ports are affected by cyclone with wind blowing up to 61 km an hour, but the time of making final preparation has not yet arrived.

Maximum sustained wind speed within 74km of the very severe cyclonic centre is about 130 kilometres per hour ph rising to 150 kph in gusts or squalls. Sea will remain very high near the severe cyclone centre.

The BMD said in a press conference that the cyclone would impact the entire Chattogram division, with ST Martin’s island and Teknaf being the worst hit.

Mocha was centred at 12:00 noon on Friday about 1,005 kms south-southwest of Chattogram port, 935 kms south-southwest of Cox’s Bazar port, 965 kms south-southwest of Mongla port and 930 kms south-southwest of Payra port.

The cyclone was moving north northeastward from the central Bay of Bengal, the BMD special bulletin said.