351 die as Cyclone Nargis hits Myanmar
Military government declares disaster areas in 5 states
Nargis.
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Cyclone causes widespread devastation
May 4: The cyclone that struck Myanmar Saturday killed at least 350 people and
"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.
“Utter war zone,” one Yangon-based diplomat said in an email to Reuters in Bangkok. “Trees across all streets. Utility poles down. Hospitals devastated. Clean water scarce.”
Many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that sit on the outskirts of the sprawling river-delta city of 5 million people.
“I have never seen anything like it,” one retired government worker told Reuters. “It reminded me of when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States.”
No water, power in Yangon
Although the sun was shining by Sunday morning, the former capital was without power and water.
An Electricity Board official said it was impossible to know when services -- hit-and-miss at the best of times in one of Asia’s poorest countries -- would be restored.
“It is very hard to say when we can resume supply. We still have to clear the mess,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.
United Nations disaster experts said it would be days before the extent of the damage was known in a country ruled since 1962 by secretive and ruthless military regimes.
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.
Bunkered down in Naypyidaw, a new capital 240 miles to the north of Yangon, the ruling generals will almost certainly have avoided the worst of the storm.
“There does not seem to be a high number of casualties but for sure there is a lot of damage to property and infrastructure,” Therje Skavdal, regional head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said.
“It’s early and it will take a few days before we get an overview of the damage,” he told Reuters in Bangkok.
Another United Nations official said a formal offer of assistance had been made although the junta was yet to respond.
