Cyclone Nargis hits Burma

The death toll from Burma's devastating cyclone has now risen to more than 22,000 and another 41,000 are missing three days after Cyclone Nargis hit the country

We prayed last night and we were all in tears, listening to the latest reports from Burma. Like millions of people around the world we are deeply distressed to learn the great loss of life and property of friends in Daidanaw cluster, in Yangoon district.

22,000 died and 41,000 missing - If the figures are accurate, it would amount to the worst natural disaster in Asia since the 2004 tsunami. We have seen the destruction of tsunami personally in Asia, during early 2005, and we can feel the pain.

We want to go there as soon as we can to show our love and comfort to the families, especially children. All telephone lines are out and drinking water is hard to get now.

We ask our close friends to contribute any amount towards the fund for the Burmese – rebuilding their lives, and we will take this amount to Burma and see how we can help them. Our Hope is Life Foundation has allocated some fund towards this Burma Project. (www.hopeislife.org)

If you would like to contribute any amount, please send a check to Hope is Life Foundation ear mark Burma Project and send to Hope is Life Foundation, P.O. Box 261, Fairport, New York 14450, USA. After our visit to Burma, we will send you a report. We will also publish updates on this blog.

We request our friends all over the world, to pray for all those who have suffered in this natural calamity.

(pictures from AP)

Horrific scenes

State media reported on Tuesday that 22,464 people had now been confirmed dead and another 41,054 people missing as a result of the cyclone. As rescue teams get to areas presently cut off, those figures are expected to rise.

Almost all of the deaths occurred in the Irrawaddy river delta region, where more people were killed by the tidal wave than the cyclone itself, Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told reporters in Rangoon.

"The wave was up to 12ft [3.5m] high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," he said. "They did not have anywhere to flee."

Some 95% of the homes in the city of Bogalay in the Irrawaddy delta were destroyed and most of its 190,000 residents are now homeless, he added.

The neighbouring cities of Labutta and Pyapon have also been badly affected. A doctor in Labutta told the BBC that half of the city had vanished and dozens of surrounding villages washed away.

Satellite images released by the US space agency, Nasa, showed virtually the entire coastal plain of the country under water, destroyed roads, downed power lines and flattened houses.

One of the few aid agencies permitted to work inside Burma, World Vision, described scenes of horror in the affected areas, with fields strewn with bodies and desperate survivors without food or shelter.

"They saw the dead bodies from the helicopters, so it's quite overwhelming," said Kyi Minn, an adviser to World Vision's office.

Foreign journalists are being denied entry to Burma, but a BBC reporter who has made it to Rangoon, its largest city and former capital, says he saw evidence of massive destruction, with houses torn down and trees ripped from their roots.

Parts of the city have had power and water restored, but most people are still running short, he adds.

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) — U.S. Navy ships are standing by off Thailand awaiting permission to join relief efforts in cyclone-hit Myanmar, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

“But that’s all we can do at this point, is to plan, because we have not received a request from the Burmese (Myanmar’s) government,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

The U.S. Navy ships that are ready to leave for Myanmar include the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship that carries 23 helicopters, three landing craft, and a contingent of 1,800 marines, the Pentagon said.

The nearest U.S. navy ships to Myanmar were reportedly a four-and-a-half-day sail away taking part in an exercise in waters in the Gulf of Thailand.

U.S. navy ready to help cyclone-ravaged Myanmar (Xinhua)

Google created a page where you can support victims of the Nargis cyclone in Myanmar (Burma).

To help visualize the damage, there are Google Earth layers showing an animation of the cyclone’s path (using satellite imagery from the Naval Research Laboratory) and the extent of the flooding using data from the UN Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). We’ll keep posting information to the Lat-Long Blog as more data comes available.

There are also several Google Grants non-profits working to provide relief to those affected. Save the Children currently has a 500-person staff in the area, while Oxfam America has committed $800,000 to help NGOs meet the immediate needs of people. World Vision and Doctors Without Borders are also taking action with two of the most vulnerable populations in the crisis: children and the injured.

Helping victims of Cyclone Nargis (Official Google blog)

Foreign aid workers in Burma have concluded that as many as 50,000 people died in Saturday’s cyclone, and two to three million are homeless, in a disaster on a scale comparable with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

“We are looking at 50,000 dead and millions homeless,” Andrew Kirkwood, country director of the British charity Save The Children, told The Times.

Aid workers fear Burma cyclone deaths will top 50,000 (Times Online)

THE DEATH TOLL: Of the 22,000 dead so far, as many as 21,793 were from the Irrawaddy delta. Another 40,695 of the 41,000 missing also came from the delta.

A look at Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, hit hardest by Cyclone Nargis (Herald Tribune)

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