zehner

Update: Rangoon devastated





Rangoon- Burma's largest city was without electricity and water Monday in the wake of category-three Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 351 people and caused untold damage to the fragile infrastructure and food supply.

State-controlled media reports said Nargis blew off the Bay of Bengal late Friday night packing winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour. It killed 19 people in Rangoon, including 11 women, 109 on the island of Hai Gyi, and 223 in the coastal Irrawaddy Division.

Rangoon, the former capital and the country's commercial hub, was among the places hardest hit by the storm that uprooted trees, toppled electricity and telephone poles and burst water pipes. On Monday, the city of several million was without basic utilities.
The devastation has raised questions about whether the government will pursue its plan to hold a referendum on May 10, to vote on a new constitution that promises to cement the military's future role in politics.


"Rangoon, a city of several million people is without electricity and without water, so I don't see how you can conduct a referendum under those conditions," said one Rangoon-based western diplomat. "I think it is fair to say there is a high probability the referendum might be postponed."

The Irrawaddy Division (region), the Burmese rice bowl, was also hard hit by Nargis, although details remain sketchy.

The actual death toll was expected to be much higher. Kawhmu and Kungyagon, two cities about 50 kilometres south of Rangoon, were reporting more than 100 dead, sources close to the government said.

The third most populous city of Pathein, the capital of the Irrawaddy, was reportedly inundated by floodwaters causing untold damage and deaths.

The fertile, low-lying Irrawaddy Division is also the chief rice growing area. Damage to the Irrawaddy's irrigation systems and crops was still unreported by state television, which is tightly monitored in this military-run country.

"The rice was high. This will certainly effect the rice crop negatively," said a western diplomat.

Observers in Rangoon said it could take weeks for the government to restore electricity in Rangoon, given the number of poles that had been toppled.

Prices on petrol, bottled water, and food had already jumped drastically in Rangoon by Monday.

A bottle of water was selling for 1,000 kyat, compared with 350 kyats last week, while the minimum bus fare had jumped from 50 kyats to 500 kyats in the city, a Rangoon resident said.

Last week's blackmarket rate for the kyat was 1,120 to the dollar.

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein appeared in Rangoon on Sunday, to pass out food and supplies to victims of the cyclone, but much of the cleanup work has been done by the people themselves.

"The military cleared the trees from the main roads but we had to do it ourselves here," said a resident of Yankin township, a Rangoon suburb.

It remains to be seen whether the government will launch an appeal for international humanitarian aid.

"International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required. The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone," said Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB).

"For their part, the regime must allow NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and aid agencies immediate and unrestricted access to the affected areas," said Naing Aung.

"Aid agencies and NGOs must be allowed to operate freely to provide humanitarian assistance directly to the people of Burma," he added.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) is one of many political organisations struggling to bring democracy to the country, which has been under military rule since 1962. (dpa)

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tomcat

According to yahoo, 10,000 died in just ONE town. Is this a natural holocaust or, due to lack of warning and preparation, man-made?

Myanmar says cyclone death toll 15,000 and set to rise - Yahoo! News

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zehner

seems to be very much the case.

the thai papers had warnings up a few days ago for people near the western border. the poor buggers on the burmese side don't seem to have been warned. if ever there was a case for the burmese junta to step down this is it

__________________
Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

crew

The single most important role of government, a good government, is to protect its citizens.

You can often argue that even the worst governments had, or have, the best intentions but go about things in an authoritative way. You can say they're just cracking a few eggs to make the omelet. But there is absolutely no defense for this one. These guys are the personification of an evil force within human nature, proof that some people don't deserve to breathe.

I'm against the death penalty and consider myself a pacifist, but the top brass in Burma deserve to die IMHO. I'd shoot them myself if I could. They are despicable.

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zehner

Rangoon - Official state media said on Tuesday the death toll from Saturday's Cyclone Nargis now has passed 22,000 - with another 41,000 missing.

The BBC, quoting state media reports, said international aid agencies are pushing to launch a massive operation in the worst-affected areas of the country.

Hundreds of thousands of people are said to be without clean water and shelter, with some areas still cut off.

State media reported on Tuesday that 22,464 people had now been confirmed as dead.

More deaths were caused by the tidal wave and surge than the cyclone itself, Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told reporters in Rangoon.

"The wave was up to 12 feet (3.5m) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," he said. "They did not have anywhere to flee."

Some 95 per cent of the homes in the city of Bogalay in the Irrawaddy river delta were destroyed, he added.

An earlier government estimate of the number of victims - as of late Monday - was 14,911 and 2,375 missing in Irrawaddy region and 504 in Rangoon. The death toll had been expected to rise as reports from remote districts reach Rangoon.

Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and without basic utilities by the cyclone, which blew off the Bay of Bengal late Friday, packing winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour, wrecking much of the country's already fragile infrastructure and threatening its precarious food supply.

Rangoon, Burma's former capital, was hit hard by the storm, which uprooted trees, toppled electricity and telephone poles, and burst water pipes, leaving the city of several million without basic utilities.

Information Minister Kyaw Hsan reiterated the government's appeal for foreign aid.

"We need aid from both local and foreign sources," Kyaw Hsan said. "It is welcome."

The military junta has misled Burma to be one of the world's least developed countries, and has earned a reputation for poor macro-economic management, let alone disaster-management.

Public funds to handle the crisis are severely limited, sources said.

Cyclone Nargis has shattered the isolated country at a sensitive time politically as the ruling military junta is preparing to hold a national referendum Saturday to win the approval of a constitution that would essentially cement the military's dominance in future elected governments.

Critics of the referendum and the military-drafted constitution have called on the government to postpone the vote to better cope with the humanitarian challenge that it faces in the coming weeks.

While insisting it would go ahead with the referendum, the government announced on Tuesday that it would allow the voting to be postponed until May 24 in 47 of the hardest-hit township in Irrawaddy and Rangoon. (BangkokPost.com, dpa)

Bangkok Post: Top Stories


video here:

Cyclone Nargis strikes Burma | World news | guardian.co.uk

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Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
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i1der

That is a lot, very disturbing, what a tragedy...wish them all the best and a quick recovery.

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Boonmee

Jesus, it's an unbelievably large number of people to die. Reminds me of the Tsunami. I wonder how long until a final toll is reached. Especially crap that the major rice-growing areas are wrecked; that would obviously draw the crisis out for even longer. Poor old Burma; when's their luck going to change?

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Jasper

Yep, sad indeed. Maybe this will be a catalyst for change.

Boonmee

I won't be holding my breath....

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Cyrille

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Piece Train

...works miracles...

Meanwhile, back at the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue:

President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the U.S. to help. The White House said the U.S. will send more than $3 million to help cyclone victims, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.
"We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country," he said.
Bush spoke at a ceremony where he signed legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.



(Source: Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio - Yahoo! News)

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Boonmee

Shouldn't that be "worked" (at best)?

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tomcat

It seems that every year Bangladesh is assaulted by killer cyclones that kill tens of thousands and destroy what feeble infrastructure there is....and every year the government there seems to be taken by surprise that another cyclone has landed. Next door Burma, totally unprepared for its current disaster, will no doubt be equally surprised next year around this time....and tens of thusands more will die.

You don't get much more Third World than that.

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zehner

Panic after the storm - the scramble for survival in Burma

As the death toll in Burma from Cyclone Nargis rises towards 30,000, one resident of Rangoon describes the desperate search for food, water and shelter in the city since the storm struck on Saturday

• <LI class=byline>Max Quincey in Rangoon <LI class=publication>The Guardian,
• Wednesday May 7 2008
• Article history

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This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday May 07 2008 on p1 of the