Several regions in Myanmar have been declared disaster zones after a tropical cyclone, accompanied by winds up of to 190km per hour speeds, destroyed hundreds of houses and knocked out electricity.Casualties were expected after Nargis hit Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, at about 5am local time (2200 GMT) on Saturday.
But neither the United Nations nor the government has provided a death toll or detailed damage assessment.
The military-run Myaddy television station said on Sunday that Yangon, Irrawaddy, Bago as well as Karen and Mon states were all heavily damaged by the cyclone.
Roofs blown off
Witnesses in Yangon said on Sunday that hundreds of houses had roofs blown off and the storm cut electricity as well as phone service in much of the city.
Yangon residents ventured out to buy construction materials to repair their homes.
Some people interviewed said that the military-led government had done little so far to help with the clean-up.
"It's a bad situation. Almost all the houses are smashed. People are in a terrible situation," a UN official in Yangon, who requested anonymity, told the Associated Press news agency.
"All the roads are blocked. There is no water. There is no electricity."
Flights disrupted
An official at Yangon International Airport said all incoming flights had been diverted to the second city of Mandalay, and all departures from Yangon had been cancelled.
An official at Thai Airways in Bangkok said the airline planned to resume flights on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties but an official in the capital Naypyidaw told the AFP news agency that some fishing boats were missing.
On Saturday evening the storm was forecast to move northeast towards Thailand, which warned that flash floods could hit the north, centre and east of the country.
Tens of thousands of people were made homeless in the Irrawaddy delta last August after unusually heavy rains triggered floods in the low-lying region.
New constitution
The cyclone comes at a delicate time for Myanmar, which is scheduled to hold a referendum on May 10 on the country's military-backed draft constitution.
A military-managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country's new constitution.
The ruling generals' handpicked delegates included those representing workers.
The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election.
Both votes are elements of a "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the generals, who have been in power for two decades.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment