မႏၱေလးမွာ ေလျပင္းက်ေနတယ္..

Strong wind strikes Myanmar second largest city

YANGON, May 06, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A strong wind with heavy rainfall suddenly struck Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay Wednesday afternoon, resulting in some damage in the city, reports reaching here from Mandalay said Thursday.

At a speed of up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour, the strong wind started blowing at 4 p.m. local time and lasted for about half an hour, the Biweekly Eleven News also said.

Billboards, trees and power and telephone cables were brought down, while some roofs of houses were also blown off, the report said.

In May last year, deadly cyclone Nargis hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.

The then storm killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to official death toll.

Meanwhile, the Meteorology and Hydrology Department (MHD) of Myanmar has forecast that more cyclone could occur in the country during the forthcoming monsoon season starting June, advising the people to stay alert and make every necessary preparations in case of recurrence of cyclone strike.

"Because of unexpected climate change, we are not sure that there won't be another cyclone as severe as the last cyclone Nargis," Dr. Tun Lwin, Director General of the MHD said.

He also urged the public to pay attention to storm news issued by the department especially in the pre-monsoon season from April to May and post-monsoon season from October to November, assessing that by that time storm is most likely to occur. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-strong-wind-strikes-myanmar-second-largest-city-/2009/05/06/4167787.htm