Myanmar cyclone death toll soaring

10,000 reported dead in one town

Associated Press

May 6, 2008

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's official news media said today that 10,000 people were killed by a powerful cyclone in one town, confirming fears of a spiraling death toll from the storm's 12-foot tidal surges and high winds that swept away bamboo homes in low-lying coastal regions.

The ruling military junta, which has cut the nation off from the international community for decades, appealed for foreign aid to help in the recovery from Saturday's disaster, the country's deadliest storm on record.

The casualty count has been rising quickly as authorities reach hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the country's major rice- producing region, which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis' 120 mph winds.

Myanmar's foreign minister told diplomats in Yangon yesterday that more than 10,000 people might have died when Cyclone Nargis struck Saturday.

Today, state television confirmed fears of a rapidly rising toll, reporting that 10,000 had died in the town of Bogalay and raising concern that the overall death toll would rise significantly.

Residents of Yangon, the former capital of 6.5 million, said they were angry that the government had failed to adequately warn them of the approaching storm and has done little to alleviate their plight.

"The government misled people. They could have warned us about the severity of the coming cyclone so we could be better prepared," said Thin Thin, a grocery store owner.

Some in Yangon complained that the 400,000-strong military was clearing only streets where the ruling elite live, leaving residents, including Buddhist monks, to cope with huge tangles of uprooted trees on their own.

Roads blocked

"There are some army trucks out to clear the roads, but most of the work was done with a dah [knife] by the people. Some of these tree trunks are 4 feet thick," said Barry Broman, a retired State Department officer who was in Yangon when the cyclone struck. "Thousands of trees were uprooted. All the roads were blocked by the trees."

The death toll would be the highest from a natural disaster in Southeast Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which killed 229,866 people as it devastated coastlines in Indonesia, Thailand and neighboring countries.

In the wake of the tsunami, an extensive early warning system was established in the Pacific region.

Yesterday, before the state media confirmation of 10,000 dead in one town, the Myanmar state radio station said 3,939 people had been killed as high winds and huge storm surges battered coastal areas, with 2,879 people reported missing in a single delta town, Bogalay, 60 miles south of Yangon.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win had told Yangon-based diplomats that the death toll could rise to more than 10,000 in the region, which sits barely above sea level, according to Asian diplomats who attended the meeting.

Hundreds of thousands were left homeless and without clean drinking water, said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The diplomats said they were told that Myanmar, also known as Burma, welcomed international humanitarian aid, including urgently needed roofing materials, medicine, water purifying tablets and mosquito nets. The first 10-ton shipment was scheduled to arrive from Thailand today.

The appeal for outside assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of international organizations and closely controlled their activities. Several agencies, including the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, have limited their presence as a consequence.

Allowing any major influx of foreigners could carry risks for the military, injecting unwanted outside influence and giving aid-givers rather than the junta credit for a recovery.

Keeping international aid out would focus blame squarely on the military if it failed to restore peoples' livelihoods.

Although relief talks with the government were continuing, Horsey said it appeared that the United Nations had the "green light" to send in a team to assess the storm's damage as early as today and would pull out all the stops to send in aid, including food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting.

In Washington, first lady Laura Bush said the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar had authorized an emergency contribution of $250,000 to help with relief efforts and was prepared to provide more if the government allowed a U.S. disaster assistance response team to enter the country to assess needs.

"Although they were aware of the threat, Burma's state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path. The response to this cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta's failures to meet its people's basic needs," she said.

Washington has long been among the junta's sharpest critics for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Americans warned

The State Department issued a travel warning for U.S. Embassy personnel and Americans in Myanmar, and authorized the departure of nonemergency U.S. citizens who are employees of the embassy and their family members.

"American citizens in cyclone-affected areas should strongly consider departing Burma," the department said in a statement.

The cyclone struck a week before a crucial referendum on a military-backed constitution, and the government's ineffectual warning system and inefficient effort to recover from the storm could sway angry voters to reject the charter.