30,000 Dead in Burma - Ajarn Forum

zehner · 5th May 2008, 11:41

Cyclone leaves at least 350 dead in Burma

· Towns flattened and communications cut
· Death toll set to rise with Irrawaddy delta worst hit

Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent and agencies
The Guardian, Monday May 5 2008 Article history

Rangoon was left without electricity. Photograph: Xinhua/Reuters

More than 350 people have died after a cyclone ripped across Burma, virtually flattening two towns and damaging more than 20,000 homes.

Cyclone Nargis, which packed winds of 120mph and torrential deluges, struck with little warning on Saturday. But the scale of the damage in the isolated regime only began emerging yesterday. State-run television put the death toll at more than 350 people, but it was expected to rise.

The former capital of Rangoon was battered for hours by the fierce gusts that tore hundreds of roofs off even the sturdiest buildings, downing power lines, lampposts and trees that blocked many roads.

One diplomat told Reuters that the scene was akin to a war zone. "Trees across all streets. Utility poles down. Hospitals devastated. Clean water scarce."

State television reported 20,000 homes destroyed on one island alone, a government official in the remote capital, Naypyidaw, said.

The country's communications were cut completely, with telephone, mobile phones and normal internet down, making it almost impossible to get a true picture of the catastrophe. In Rangoon, where at least 19 died, electricity was off and clean water in short supply. When residents ventured out to find food and supplies to patch up their homes, they found prices had doubled overnight.

UN disaster experts said it would be days before the full extent of the damage was known in a country ruled since 1962 by the military.

The junta declared a disaster in five states while government television carried footage of soldiers clearing trees from roads and the prime minister, Thein Sein, a lieutenant-general, meeting people sheltering in a Buddhist pagoda.

Cyclone Nargis had been gathering steam in the tropical waters of the Bay of Bengal for several days before it slammed into Rangoon. "It was a direct hit on a major city," said Terje Skavdal, regional head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"The government did warn people to stay inside and that might have had an impact, but the material damage is enormous," Skavdal said. The UN had yet to receive a response from the junta to its official offer of help, he added.

Aid workers, who have little access to rural Burma, were most concerned about the Irrawaddy delta area, where 222 people died. Official newspapers in Rangoon said yesterday only a quarter of the flimsy bamboo houses, of Lapputa and Kyaik, deep in the rice-growing belt and accessible only by boats, remained standing. US military satellite images showed the delta had borne the brunt of the cyclone.

Experts had predicted that Nargis would generate a storm surge of 12ft (3.5 metres) leaving low-lying areas vulnerable.

Cyclone leaves at least 350 dead in Burma | World news | The Guardian

Cawphad Guy · 5th May 2008, 18:34

My heart goes out to them and their families.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehner

The UN had yet to receive a response from the junta to its official offer of help, he added.

Let's hope they accept some aid.

mugwump · 5th May 2008, 18:52

Up to 4,000+ now.

preezeplessone · 5th May 2008, 19:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by mugwump

Up to 4,000+ now.

Yep, I just saw a similar number at News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com

zehner · 5th May 2008, 20:47

Burma cyclone death toll soars to 4,000

THE death toll in Burma following a ferocious weekend storm has now claimed nearly 4,000 lives and left thousands more missing.
Burmese state radio - broadcasting from the country's capital Naypyitaw - today put the death toll from Saturday's cyclone at 3,939, a sharp increase from yesterday's official figure of 351.

The radio also said that the devastation caused by CyclADVERTISEMENTone Nargis left 2,879 more people unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area.

Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless and without clean drinking water from the storm, said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in neighbouring Thailand for United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Officials from the military government met today with representatives of international aid agencies to discuss providing assistance. Thailand announced that it would fly some aid in on Tuesday.

The private aid agency World Vision said Burma's government had invited it "to provide assistance in the form of zinc sheets, tents, tarpaulins and medicine".

The group said: "The agency is co-ordinating with authorities to explore an airlift of emergency supplies into the country from one of its global warehouses."

The situation in the countryside remained unclear because of poor communications and roads left impassable by the storm.

Residents in Rangoon, the country's biggest city and former capital, queued to buy water and hacked their way through trees felled in the cyclone that destroyed thousands of homes and caused widespread power cuts.

Older citizens said they had never seen Rangoon, a city of around 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.

Some in Rangoon complained that the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after the storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.

Hotels and more affluent families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.

Public transport was almost at a standstill although airlines announced that Rangoon's international airport had reopened for foreign and domestic flights.

Most telephone landlines, mobile phones and Internet connections were down.

State television reported that in the Irrawaddy's Labutta township, 75% of the buildings had collapsed.

Despite the havoc wreaked by Nargis across wide swathes of the south-east Asian nation, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on Saturday.

Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.

Burma cyclone death toll soars to 4,000 - Scotsman.com News

Baas Babelaas · 5th May 2008, 20:50

Think it's up to 4000 now, according to BBC.

crew · 5th May 2008, 20:59

Didn't 5,000 people die in all of Thailand or was that just Phuket?

Like those people need more suffering. Unfortunately, I'd be willing to bet none of the top brass died.

DunceCap · 5th May 2008, 23:21

I was wondering if the Adaman side of Thailand was affected. Phuket?

toong tao daeng · 5th May 2008, 23:41

The govt. of Myanmar is now stating the death toll could reach 10,000, and they're asking for foreign aid.

crew · 6th May 2008, 00:44

Grim but believable? (The official death toll for the 2004 tsunami is 61.)

Burma's cyclone death toll tops 10,000

Burma's cyclone death toll tops 10,000

Burma's foreign minister Nyan Win says more than 10,000 people have been killed in a tropical cyclone that struck the country at the weekend.

He told state television information is still being collected, and there could be more casualties.

Earlier, state media said tens of thousands of people may have been killed in the township of Bogalay alone.

Offers of help also came from Singapore and Thailand, while the European Commission released $3 million in initial emergency aid.

Our South East Asia correspondent Karen (that's an unfortunate name for a foreign journalist in Burma) Percy reports United Nations agencies and the International Red Cross have teams on the ground trying to determine the extent of the damage.

But road closures, flooding and military controls are reportedly preventing them from reaching the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta region.

Killing Me Softly 101 · 6th May 2008, 01:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by DunceCap

I was wondering if the Adaman side of Thailand was affected. Phuket?

Navy sent a ship to the Simians (islands (picked up several hundrend stranded tourists and divers).

Quote:

Originally Posted by crew

Burma's cyclone death toll tops 10,000

Of course without transparency, the numbers don't really make much sense. Could there be other reasons the Burmese generals would alter numbers?

This at a time when most nations have cut off all Aid to the Junta.

This happened with HIV numbers in Africa to increase Aid.
Also the opposite has happened, N. Korea and Cambodia (under K.R) not telling about internal starvation to appear as thought we don't need anyone else's help.

It is a tragedy indeed, make worse by the government there.

MisterStretch · 6th May 2008, 07:47

They're now saying 15,000 plus. I wonder how much smaller the numbers would have been if the government had warned the population that the storm was on the way.

It's being reported that only outside news outlets, like Radio Free Asia, were the ones talking about the storm prior to it hitting.

zehner · 6th May 2008, 07:59

RTÉ News: Death toll after Burma cyclone reaches 10,000

Elsewhere, US First Lady Laura Bush has accused the Burmese military regime of failing to alert its citizens in time to the approaching cyclone which ravaged the country.
She added that the United States is ready to send aid to Burma.
She urged the reclusive military leadership to quickly accept such offers of international help.

Meanwhile, the military junta has said it will go ahead with a referendum on a new constitution planned for next Saturday despite the massive cyclone.
The country's generals say the ballot will usher in democratic multi-party general elections in 2010, but critics say it will only solidify their grip on power.
Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and other pro-democracy groups are calling for a 'No' vote at the referendum, but they have little ability to campaign effectively because the junta has outlawed speeches and leaflets about the referendum.

Fortesque Smythe Brown · 6th May 2008, 09:42

Note of course that the ruling junta scum barred some U.N. aid already.Sadly I wonder just how much truth there may be coming out of Burma.I indeed feel for the Burmese people in general and indeed I hope their suffering is soon dealt with.

However I am certainly concerned as to the framework of the aid distribution system and dare I say ''Will the aid reach those in need or will the parasitical military junta scum fatten themselves and their acolytes at the expense of the ordinary Burmeses cictizen'' ?

Cynical I may be, but I would put my money on the parasitical military junta scum purlioning the aid offered to Myanamar.

No wonder the scum don't want the U.N or the Red Cross or any other aid organisation getting too close to the man and the woman in the street, the truth would emerge.

Very quick the military scum to deny world acceess, but indecently quick to ask for world help on their (the scum) conditions.May the scum rot in their villas and mansions built from slavery followed by stolen money and freedom all at the expense of the vast majority of the Burmese people.

Mr Pants · 6th May 2008, 09:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fortesque Smythe Brown

Cynical I may be, but I would put my money on the parasitical military junta scum purlioning the aid offered to Myanamar.

From what I've seen over the last 12 months you are right to be cynical about the Burmese government. If they're admitting the death toll is around 10,000 then you can bet the real number is probably closer to 50,000.

T