File:Flooding in Myanmar (MODIS).jpg

English: May 17, 2023 May 8, 2023

Tropical Cyclone Mocha brought destruction, power outages, landslides, and flooding to Myanmar after making landfall near Sittwe in Rakhine state on March 14, 2023. The storm came ashore carrying winds of 130 miles per hour (209 km/h), placing it in Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Within 24 hours, Mocha had weakened to a tropical depression well inland.

On May 17, ReliefWeb an electronic publication by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported, “One of the strongest storms to hit Myanmar in decades has left aid agencies battling flooding and blocked roads to provide life-saving aid to affected communities…Almost 5.4 million people across Rakhine state and the northwest are estimated to have been in the path of Cyclone Mocha, which devastated homes, schools and vital infrastructure.” Bangladesh, located west of Myanmar, also sustained damage although not as severe as Rakhine state and northwestern Myanmar.

Due to widespread power outages, inaccessibility of many areas, and issues caused by civil unrest, early estimates of damage in Myanmar are limited. The number of people repeated killed due to the storm by news media, as of May 17, was as high as 202. However, there is concern that “hundreds” may have perished.

On May 17, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of the western coast of Myanmar inundated from extensive flooding from Tropical Cyclone Mocha. This type of image uses infrared and visible light to help separate vegetation, which appears green, from water, which looks blue or black (deeper water is darker). To appreciate the extent of flooding, click on the dates below the image to toggle between this image and another Terra MODIS false-color image captured of the same area on May 8, which was well before Mocha began to impact the area.

The city of Sittwe sits just north and west of the center of the image, on a squared-off island that appears much like a peninsula on May 8. It has been completely cut off from the mainland and much reduced in size on May 17. Tropical Cyclone Mocha passed north of Sittwe, moving towards the northeast and inland.