Posted on 05/14/2008 4:23:59 PM PDT by blam
Myanmar cyclone: 130,000 may have died as second storm gathers
By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon
Last Updated: 11:07PM BST 14/05/2008
The Red Cross said that almost 130,000 people may have perished in the Burmese cyclone disaster, as a second deadly storm gathered off the Burmese coast. There are more calls for the secret military regime in Burma to allow aid workers into the country, following the deadly cyclone.
The organisation said that the toll may be 127,990, almost 30,000 higher than the figure estimated by the US embassy in Rangoon.
A further 2.51 million people have been left battling to survive the cylone’s aftermath with inadequate food, shelter or drinking water, the organisation said.
The threat of a second cyclone was once again ignored by the Burmese authorities, who have yet to alert the country.
An American government agency said: “The potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is upgraded to good with the only limitation being temporary land interaction.”
Amanda Pitt, a United Nations spokesman, said that the “already weak” survivors would struggle to withstand a second battering, even though it is not expected to be as severe. The new storm would hamper “people’s ability to survive and cope with what happened to them ... This is terrible,” she said.
Residents of Rangoon - which some forecasts said would receive another direct hit - were aware of “bad weather” to come from foreign broadcasts, the internet and word of mouth.
In the Irrawaddy delta, where hundreds of thousands of ailing survivors of Cyclone Nargis are living in squalor, few have access to radio. The storm, if it arrives, will come without warning.
The new storm is not expected to be as strong as the last one — whose 120mph winds whipped up a 12 foot wall of water - but it is believed to carry an average month’s worth of rain fall. Heavy rains will further damage already broken roads and bring misery to unprotected survivors.
International agencies believe that at least 100,000 people were killed by Nargis, although the Burmese regime stands by a lower figure. Relief supplies from the United Nations and charities have so far reached only 270 000 survivors — a fraction of the total number.
Most of the aid delivered so far — including by the American air force - has been distributed by the Burmese army. The junta has refused to allow foreign aid workers into the Irrawaddy Delta. The few who have received visas are almost all confined to Rangoon.
A cordon of checkpoints has been thrown up around the city since the beginning of the week, turning back any foreigner trying to reach the worst hit areas. The absence of foreign expertise and equipment has severely hampered the operation, amid allegations that the army is diverting some supplies for its own use.
“If these people aren’t reached and aid got to them quickly, and shelter and toilet facilities, disease will break out,” said Gordon Bacon of the International Rescue Committee. Already there are widespread reports of diarrhoea.
Aggressive security measures also mean that it is increasingly difficult to gain an accurate impression of conditions in the delta.
In Rangoon, foreign journalists are being tracked down and several are deported every day. There was also a heightened security presence in the city, with more armed police on the streets than usual.
But the delivery of relief supplies to Rangoon airport is slowly picking up. The British ambassador, Mark Canning, was at the airport to meet the first British aid flight, carrying plastic sheeting which will be distributed by the UN World Food Programme.
The WFP is still urgently seeking boats and helicopter to deliver aid to isolated communities.
“I was told they were expecting around 15-20 flights coming in today so that’s good,” said Mr Canning. “It represents quite a stepping up, but much, much more is needed.
“The conditions in the delta are horrendous but stuff is getting in, we need much more and we’re exploring all options for trying to improve the flow, but yes, it’s been difficult.”
Sources in Rangoon say that the delays imposed by the junta are due to fears that foreigners will undermine the regime’s grip on power, and also to bureaucratic incompetence and inertia. Mr Canning offered some hope that the latter problem may now ease.
“The greater the volume that comes in, the more it is stretching quite a limited system at this end and people, in a way, are obliged to cut corners and let stuff through rather more easily than they might do,” he said.
What is Buddha upset about now? Not getting the Mohammad headlines?
Is it a globe makers conspiracy so we have to keep buying globes and world maps.
Myanmar looks just like Burma!
Good news is, the second storm has fallen apart, so that’s one prayer answered.
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