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Cyclone kills 351 in Myanmar
Yangon—A powerful cyclone killed more than 350
people, destroyed thousands of homes and knocked out power in the
country’s largest city, state-run media said Sunday.
Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck early Saturday with winds of up to
120 mph, the military-run Myaddy television station said.
Shari Villarosa, the top American diplomat in Yangon, said trees and
electricity lines were down in the city after the storm’s whipping
winds and torrential downpour.
“Our Burmese staff have lost their roofs,” she told The Associated
Press. “There is major devastation throughout the city.”
Five regions of the impoverished Southeast Asian country have been
declared disaster zones.
At least 351 people were killed, including 162 who lived on Haing
Gyi island off the country’s southwest coast, state-run television
said. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
“The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the
wind and rain but because of the storm surge,” said Chris Kaye, the
U.N.’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. “The villages
there have reportedly been completely flattened.”
State television reported that in the Irrawaddy’s Labutta township,
75 percent of the buildings had collapsed.
The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye
said. Initial assessment efforts have been hampered by roads clogged
with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
“At the moment, we have such poor opportunity for communications
that I can’t really tell you very much,” Kaye said.
Witnesses in Yangon said the storm’s 120 mph winds blew the roofs
off hundreds of houses, damaged hotels, schools and hospitals, and
cut electricity to the entire city.
The state-owned newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday that
the international airport in Yangon remained shut. Domestic flights
have been diverted to the airport in Mandalay, it said.
“It’s a bad situation. Almost all the houses are smashed. People are
in a terrible situation,” said a U.N. official in Yangon, who
requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the
media.
“All the roads are blocked. There is no water. There is no
electricity,” she said.
Yangon residents ventured out Sunday to buy construction materials
to repair their homes. The price of gasoline jumped from $2.50 to
$10 a gallon on the black market and everything from eggs to
construction supplies had tripled, residents said.
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