Myanmar Cyclone Death Toll Hits 100,000 as Disaster Scope Widens

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Irrawaddy delta area of Myanmar (also known as Burma), is proving to be a much larger disaster than originally thought.

The most recent death toll estimate, which comes from a neutral international relief organization and not the junta government in Burma, is hovering near 100,000, more than five times the official government estimate.

"Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard Horsey, a representative from the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian aid. Horsey told Associated Press reporters, "Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water. [It’s] a major, major disaster we're dealing with."

Hundreds of survivors pulled dead bodies out of the salty water, or gathered in large crowds around the few remaining stores still open. The cyclone essentially flattened about 95% of all buildings in the Irrawaddy area.

The head of the United States’ embassy in Burma told the press the actual numbers of the dead were closer to 100,000.

Problems have arisen with getting aid to the country, some say because of bureaucratic "foot-dragging" by the rigidly controlling state government there. However, television reports in the nation declared that aid would be accepted by any country that wished to give it, and relief was already coming in from several countries. Britain and the United States pledged to help with $9 million and $3 million, respectively. However, the government has yet to agree to accept help from the United States.

"[The] most urgent need is food and water," said Andrew Kirkwood, the director of the Save the Children program in Yangon, Burma. "Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can't use tablets to purify salt water," said Kirkwood to reporters.

Part of the problem, echoed other relief workers, was that the standing, stagnant water harbors bacteria and diseases, and that desperately thirsty people would be tempted to drink it.

Chlorine tablets to purify drinking water can help, and relief organizations were on hand to distribute those, plus food, water, and other basic necessities to hundreds of thousands of needy people. However, there is an urgent need for more staff to help distribute aid. Meanwhile, thousands of relief workers wait, ready to help, in nearby Thailand, for approval of temporary visas that will allow them into the country.

Estimates put the number of people left homeless by Cyclone Nargis at about one million.

To add to the troubles of the local people, the cyclone devastated a large portion of the area’s rice-growing fields, and the Irrawaddy area supplies about 65% of all rice to the entire nation of Burma.

This means a looming hunger crisis in an already impoverished nation.

Food prices have already begun to soar, with rice prices doubling throughout the region, and other foods costing as much as four times their regular price.

The mood on the street is frustrated, hungry, and angry. People feel that the government is not moving fast enough to restore electricity, water supplies, and other aid. "People are angry not at the shopkeepers, but at the government," said one bystander to Reuters news reporters.

Gasoline has been rationed at two gallons per day, and fuel costs are also soaring.

This is a country accustomed to daily hardship and challenge, with a government crackdown from last August still looming in the minds of many that caused the deaths of at least 31 people. People interviewed on the streets emphasized that no demonstrations were being planned.

But there is a growing restlessness to receive basic survival staples.

"We hope electricity will be back in one or two weeks, but who knows?" said one man waiting in line. "No one is doing anything about it at the moment."