Cyclone victims storm shops as aid delays bite
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) — Hungry crowds of survivors have stormed reopened shops in Myanmar’s devastated Irrawaddy delta, the U.N says, as aid groups and governments grow frustrated by their lack of access to the country.
Little aid has reached the area since a weekend cyclone killed more than 22,000 people and left 41,000 homeless.
Internal U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the country’s military junta.
Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out, according to meeting minutes of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Thailand on Wednesday, obtained by AP.
The minutes said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will contact Myanmar Wednesday to arrange a meeting with high-ranking officials on the issue.
Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in Bangkok (WFP), Thailand, told AP that aid workers had reported fist fights are breaking out after a few shops had reopened.
Survivors were also trying to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, according to witness accounts, AP reported.
The International Rescue Committee is also struggling to gain access.
We can’t delay on this — this is a huge disaster and the longer (Myanmar) waits the worse it’s going to become, spokesman Gregory Beck said.
The delta, Myanmar’s rice-growing heartland, has been devastated by Cyclone Nargis, threatening long-term food shortages for survivors, experts said.
The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that five states hit hardest by Saturday’s cyclone produce 65 percent of the country’s rice, AP reported.
There is likely going to be incredible shortages in the next 18 to 24 months, Sean Turnell, an economist specializing in Myanmar at Australia’s Macquarie University told AP. Things will be tough.
The WFP, which has started feeding the estimated one million homeless, said there were immediate concerns about salvaging harvested rice in the flooded Irrawaddy delta. Watch Rivers’ report from Bogalay
The cyclone battered the country with winds of 240kph (150mph) and 3.5 meter (11.48 feet) storm water surges.
Damage was also extensive in the country’s largest city, Yangon. Much of the former capital is without power and littered with debris and fallen trees.
Harrowing details have started to emerge, with one woman describing to the Democratic Voice of Burma — a broadcast media group run by opposition expatriates — a wall of water jumping from the Gulf of Mottama into the delta areas.
CNN obtained the video in which the survivor said she walked a trail dotted by dead bodies to get to safety, passing a group of about 1,000 homeless people who slept on the street. See photos of the destruction
Yes, there is tide coming along. Trees fall over people, the survivor said. There are many dead bodies lying under trees. Yes, all people I saw are crying too much and searching for bodies of loved ones. There is bad smell from dead bodies on the way we came from.
The woman said she lived in the village of Dadaye near the gulf in southern Myanmar, which was in the path of the storm. She said that as she fled, she passed a village where only six people survived.
We found about 40 dead bodies on this way, the woman said. Everywhere … in the bushes like this, and in the streams like this. Everywhere.
CNN’s Dan Rivers, the first Western journalist into the devastated town of Bogalay, reported seeing bodies being thrown into rivers by survivors in desperate need of help. An iReporter documents the destruction
Rivers said Wednesday that it was difficult to find the words to describe the level of destruction.
Ninety percent of the houses have been flattened… the help that these people are getting seems to be pretty much nonexistent from what we’ve seen.
He saw members of Myanmar’s army clearing roads, but handing out little food or medicine.
There has been scant help, really. I think we saw one or two Red Cross vehicles in the entire time we were driving, Rivers said of his travels over a 12-hour period.
The U.N. said Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, had authorized it to send an airplane laden with aid supplies, but permission was still pending for a coordination team to accompany the flight.
However, international efforts were being frustrated by Myanmar’s delay in processing visas for aid workers.
We’ve got stuff on standby and we expect in the next day or two to be given the go-ahead, James East of World Vision told CNN from Bangkok, a staging area for many groups. Learn more about Myanmar
Hundreds of World Vision staff were already in Myanmar with limited supplies, according to East, distributing food and water, and making assessments.
He said it wanted to bring in additional employees and supplies as soon as possible.
Even when aid comes in, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare to get it out to the remote delta region, East said.
Andrew Kirkwood, head of the Save the Children aid group in Yangon, said people were getting sick.
The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can’t use tablets to purify salt water, he told AP.
The Myanmar Red Cross has been handing out relief supplies, such as clean drinking water, plastic sheeting, clothing, insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent malaria, and kitchen items, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. Watch the cyclone’s destruction
The U.S. has pledged $3.25 million and offered to send U.S. Navy ships to the region to help relief efforts — if Myanmar’s government agrees.
