Wednesday, May 7, 2008, Rabi-ul-Sani 30, 1429    

Over 22,000 dead after cyclone in Myanmar

Yangon—Myanmar officials said on Tuesday the death toll could continue to climb higher than the 22,000 already feared dead from the Southeast Asian nation’s devastating cyclone as the international community prepared to rush in aid.
In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, state radio reported that the government was delaying a constitutional referendum in areas hit hardest.
Myanmar’s Information Minister Maj. Gen. Kyaw Hsan confirmed at a news conference that some 4,000 people had died in Yangon and the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region. He added that another 10,000 people could be dead in the delta.
Kyaw said tidal waves killed most of the victims in that region.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Nyan Win was quoted by state-run television as saying that more than 10,000 people had perished in Irrawaddy while a smaller number died in and around Yangon, the country’s largest city.
“News and data are still being collected, so there may be many more casualties,” he said. It was not known why the two ministers presented different death tolls.
The World Food Program, which was preparing to fly in food, added its own grim assessment of the destruction: Up to 1 million people may be homeless, some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out.
A state television report gave two different numbers — 59 and 130 — for the dead in what is known as Yangon division. It did not explain the differing tolls.—AP