As Aid Delivery Arrives in Cyclone-Ravaged Burma, Fears Death Toll Could Top 100,000

Thursday, May 8, 2008 :The full scale of the disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis in Burma is emerging as assessment and aid teams, local and international, move into devastated villages and towns of the Irrawaddy delta. While the official death toll still stands at nearly 23,000 and another 41,000 missing, far higher estimates are being issued by aid officials and organisations.

World Vision adviser Kyi Minn told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) yesterday that the number of dead might be 80,000 or more. We dont have direct communication... because there are no phone lines and transportation is very limited because the roads are still blocked and some areas are flooded and you cant go, so we have to rely on the information thats brought by the eyewitnesses there, he said.

Minn put the number of missing at 60,000, most of whom could be presumed dead. Eyewitness reports indicated that the situation in the affected areas was serious. They found a lot of dead bodies there and the sanitation is quite bad.

The US charge daffaires in Rangoon, Shari Villarosa, yesterday indicated that the figure could be even higher. Based on data from an international non-government organisation, she said: The information we are receiving indicates over 100,000 deaths. Villarosa said that about 95 percent of buildings in the delta region had been destroyed, most of the damage being done when huge storm surges whipped up by the cyclone swamped the low lying areas.

Various aid organisations point to the appalling conditions now confronting many of the survivors in the delta region, who have little in the way of shelter, food, clean water or medicines. UN aid official Richard Horsey said: Basically the entire lower delta region is under water. Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water. He described the situation as a major, major disaster.

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