Yangon Cyclone Deaths: 10,000!

[3113]

Holy Shit!

YANGON, Myanmar - The death toll from a devastating cyclone in Myanmar could reach more than 10,000 in the low-lying area where the storm wreaked the most havoc, the country's foreign minister warned Monday. Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. It knocked out electricity to the country's largest city, Yangon, and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Some sought refuge at Buddhist monasteries while others lined up Monday to buy candles, which had doubled in price, and water since the lack of electricity-driven pumps had left most households dry.

Myanmar is not known to have an adequate disaster warning system and many rural buildings are constructed of thatch, bamboo and other materials easily destroyed by fierce storms. "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.

The radio station broadcasting from the country's capital, Naypyitaw, said 3,939 people had been killed. Another 2,879 people were unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area. But Foreign Minister Nyan Win told Yangon-based diplomats that the death toll could rise to more than 10,000 in the Irrawaddy delta, according to Asian diplomats at the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was held behind closed doors.

Myanmar's ruling junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, appealed for aid on Monday. But the U.S. State Department said Myanmar's government had not granted permission for a Disaster Assistance Response Team into the country. Laura Blank, spokeswoman for World Vision, said two assessment teams have been sent to the hardest hit areas to determine the most urgent needs. "This is probably the most devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia since the tsunami," Blank said, referring to the 2004 disaster that killed around 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations. "There are a lot of important needs, but the most important is clean water...."

In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. Embassy in Yangon had authorized an emergency contribution of $250,000 to help with relief efforts. "We have a DART team that is standing by and ready to go into Burma to help try to assess needs there," deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. "As of this moment, the Burmese government has not given them permission, however, to go into the country so that is a barrier to us being able to move forward...."

U.N. agencies were working with the Red Cross and other organizations to see how it can help those affected by the cyclone. UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said the U.N. children's agency alone has five teams assessing the situation in the country....

 

[impressive]

 

[colddiesel]

Myanmar's request for help should be treated cautiously. This weekend the country has a referendum on a new so called constitution imposed by the generals and designed to keep them in place forever. Despite the disaster they have refused to postpone it and my guess is that they don't want to give anyone an excuse for protest. I have visited Myanmar several times and can be reasonably confident in saying that the generals couldn't give a stuff how many poor Burmese are killed.

Incidentally the latest reports indicate the edeath toll is rising rapidly and is already past 15000.

 

[3113]

Incidentally the latest reports indicate the edeath toll is rising rapidly and is already past 15000.

gee-uz.

 

[DesertPirate]

I heard this afternoon that it is over 22,000

This is getting into the range we can't really comprehend

 

[Liar]

It's a little blurry whether reports are for dead or for unaccounted for, but the last number says 40 000 plus.

Said on the tv just now that it might be that there's a lot of people cut off from communication, but alive.

 

[Guest]

I just saw this headline.

'Myanmar deaths may hit 100,000'

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627038335&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

This is horrifying.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

There seems to be some journalistic hope that this disaster will somehow force the generals from power. I call it a daydream. I did research on them for the Army back about 10 or so years ago. The entire economy of Burma is a giant PX designed to support the army and the generals are heavily involved in the heroin trade. Imagine a country run by the Mafia. Call it Myanmar.

 

[DesertPirate]

Latest I have seen is 100,000 dead and as many as a million homeless

 

[MagicaPractica]

The latest I have seen is still 22,000 dead but people are going to be dying for some time to come over there. There is no drinking water, it's covered in salt water and you can't purify that with tablets. Food crops are destroyed. Reports are that the military is clearing roads but not providing any supplies of any kind. Getting out into the countryside to give out supplies is nearly impossible at this point.

The government has refused US aid. I don't know whether that means Red Cross or what.

 

[starrkers]

From the current Sydney Morning Herald online report

State radio and TV, the main official sources for casualties and damage, reported an updated death toll of 22,980 with 42,119 missing and 1383 injured in Asia's most devastating cyclone since a 1991 storm in Bangladesh that killed 143,000.

Most of the victims were swept away by a wall of water from the cyclone that smashed into coastal towns and villages in the rice-growing delta southwest of Rangoon.

"We estimate upwards of one million people currently in need of shelter and life-saving assistance," Richard Horsey of the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters in Bangkok. He added that 5,000 square km of the delta were under water.

 

[starrkers]

And now the aid workers are being refused entry, and another storm is headed their way.

 

[carrie-on]

I just heard that the UN has halted delivery of supplies because the junta is taking them.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

500,000 dead is the number I'm reading.

 

[impressive]

http://eroticanthology.blogspot.com/2008/05/coming-together-to-help-victims-of.html


There are charities already "on the ground" in Burma. Folks are saying it's best to donate to those already in place.