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At least 22,500 people died in the Burma cyclone and the toll is likely to rise rapidly as officials make contact with the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta areas, military officials said on Tuesday.
Officials said 41,054 people are missing and up to 1 million people are homeless.
Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had died in just one town, Bogalay, as he gave the first detailed account of what is emerging as the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.
The total left homeless by the 190 km (120 miles) per hour winds and 12-foot (3.5 metres) storm surge is 1 million, United Nations aid officials say, and could run into the millions.
At least 22,500 people died in the Burma cyclone and the toll is likely to rise rapidly as officials make contact with the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta areas, military officials said on Tuesday.
Officials said 41,054 people are missing and up to 1 million people are homeless.
Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had died in just one town, Bogalay, as he gave the first detailed account of what is emerging as the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.
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| Residents queue to get drinking water in Rangoon. The US is providing aid to cyclone-ravaged Burma through its embassy in Rangoon and is looking at what more it can do to help, the White House said Monday. (Photo: AFP) |
“More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself,” Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told a news conference in the devastated former capital, Rangoon, where food and water supplies are running low.
“The wave was up to 12 feet (3.5 metres) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages,” he said, giving the first detailed description of the weekend cyclone. “They did not have anywhere to flee.”
It is the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.
However, Information Minister Kyaw Hsan said the military were “doing their best”, but analysts said there could be political fallout for military rulers of the former Burma who pride themselves on their ability to cope with any challenge.
“The myth they have projected about being well-prepared has been totally blown away,” said political analyst Aung Naing Oo, who fled to Thailand after a brutally crushed 1988 uprising. “This could have a tremendous political impact in the long term.”
Earlier, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had died just in Bogalay, a town 90 kilometres southwest of Rangoon.
The Information Minister said the government had sufficient stocks of rice despite damage to grain stored in the huge delta, known as the “rice bowl of Asia” 50 years ago when Burma was the world's largest rice exporter.
After a meeting with Burmese ambassador to Bangkok, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadol Pattama said he had been told 30,000 people were missing after cyclone Nargis.
“The losses have been much greater than we anticipated,” he said. Ambassador Ye Win declined to speak to reporters.
The total left homeless by the 190-kilometre-an-hour winds and storm surge is in the several hundred thousands, United Nations aid officials say.
The disaster drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Bernard Delpuech, a European Union aid official in Rangoon, said the junta had sent three ships carrying food to the delta region, the rice bowl for Burma’s 53 million people. Nearly half the population lives in the five disaster-hit divisions.
Aid agency World Vision in Australia said it had been granted special visas to send in personnel to back up 600 staff in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.
"This is massive. It is not necessarily quite tsunami level, but in terms of impact of millions displaced, thousands dead, it is just terrible," said World Vision Australia head Tim Costello.
"Organizations like ours have been given permission, which is pretty unprecedented, to fly people in. This shows how grave it is in the Burmese government's mind," he said.
The town-by-town list of dead and missing announced by Nyan Win showed 14,859 deaths in the Irrawaddy Division and 59 in Rangoon, the largest city of 5million and the former capital.
The hardest-hit area was the Irrawaddy region where about 10,000 people died in Bogalay, 90 kms (55 miles) southwest of Rangoon.
In Rangoon, people were queuing up for bottled water and there was still no electricity four days after Cyclone Nargis struck.
"Generators are selling very well under the generals," said one man waiting outside a shop, reflecting some of the resentment on the streets to what many described as a slow warning and response.
Very few soldiers were seen clearing debris and trees, except at major intersections, residents in the former capital said.
“The wave was up to 12 feet (3.5 metres) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages,” he said, giving the first detailed description of the weekend cyclone. “They did not have anywhere to flee.”
It is the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.
However, Information Minister Kyaw Hsan said the military were “doing their best”, but analysts said there could be political fallout for military rulers of the former Burma who pride themselves on their ability to cope with any challenge.
“The myth they have projected about being well-prepared has been totally blown away,” said political analyst Aung Naing Oo, who fled to Thailand after a brutally crushed 1988 uprising. “This could have a tremendous political impact in the long term.”
Earlier, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had died just in Bogalay, a town 90 kilometres southwest of Rangoon.
The Information Minister said the government had sufficient stocks of rice despite damage to grain stored in the huge delta, known as the “rice bowl of Asia” 50 years ago when Burma was the world's largest rice exporter.
After a meeting with Burmese ambassador to Bangkok, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadol Pattama said he had been told 30,000 people were missing after cyclone Nargis.
“The losses have been much greater than we anticipated,” he said. Ambassador Ye Win declined to speak to reporters.
The total left homeless by the 190-kilometre-an-hour winds and storm surge is in the several hundred thousands, United Nations aid officials say.
The disaster drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Bernard Delpuech, a European Union aid official in Rangoon, said the junta had sent three ships carrying food to the delta region, the rice bowl for Burma’s 53 million people. Nearly half the population lives in the five disaster-hit divisions.
Aid agency World Vision in Australia said it had been granted special visas to send in personnel to back up 600 staff in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.
"This is massive. It is not necessarily quite tsunami level, but in terms of impact of millions displaced, thousands dead, it is just terrible," said World Vision Australia head Tim Costello.
"Organizations like ours have been given permission, which is pretty unprecedented, to fly people in. This shows how grave it is in the Burmese government's mind," he said.
The town-by-town list of dead and missing announced by Nyan Win showed 14,859 deaths in the Irrawaddy Division and 59 in Rangoon, the largest city of 5million and the former capital.
The hardest-hit area was the Irrawaddy region where about 10,000 people died in Bogalay, 90 kms (55 miles) southwest of Rangoon.
In Rangoon, people were queuing up for bottled water and there was still no electricity four days after Cyclone Nargis struck.
"Generators are selling very well under the generals," said one man waiting outside a shop, reflecting some of the resentment on the streets to what many described as a slow warning and response.
Very few soldiers were seen clearing debris and trees, except at major intersections, residents in the former capital said.
