A Save the Children emergency assessment team has just returned from three of the areas of Yangon Division worst affected by Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in the early hours of Saturday.
Monday 5 May 2008
Cyclone Nargis hit the south west corner of Myanmar with winds of 120 miles per hour battering coastal areas. State television has reported that 3,900 people have been killed, with a further 2,000 missing and Save the Children estimates that many thousands could be homeless across Myanmar.
Firm information is hard to come by, but early indications from Save the Children aid workers in Yangon estimate is that more than 50,000 children, women and men could be without shelter in the three townships that we have accessed in Yangon Division. Displaced people are gathering in school buildings, monasteries, churches and mosques. Some shelters are crammed with 1,000 people or more.
Save the Children is working in all five of the worst hit areas and earlier today bought two metric tonnes of food, plus plastic sheeting and non - food items to distribute to those hit hardest by the disaster.
The distributions will start tomorrow (Tuesday, May 6) as aid workers will continue with the emergency needs assessment. The initial Save the Children response will reach 10,000 affected people but this number is likely to increase as Save the Children moves to the second stage of its emergency response, providing water purification kits, items for shelter and distributing cash to displaced families.
The Burmese authorities have declared a state of emergency in five areas: Rangoon District (Yangon), Pegu Division, Mon State, Karen State and the Irrawaddy Division. An estimated 24 million people live in these five areas that have been hit hard by Cyclone Nargis.
A large number of villages are reported to have been damaged or destroyed along the coastal areas of the Irrawaddy Delta. An estimated seven million people live around the delta area which is where the country's rice supply is grown. The disaster is likely to increase already high food prices.
Andrew Kirkwood, Myanmar country director of Save the Children, said: "Older people I've spoken to in Yangon [Rangoon] say this is the worst storm they've seen in the 60 years they've been alive. Everyone recognises this was unprecedented."