Burma Cyclone Relief

Carol Allan, wife of TEAR Australia fieldworker David Allan, has been recording the stories of Cyclone Nargis survivors in Yangon. These include staff members and associates of World Concern Burma (Myanmar). Please note that all names have been changed.

 

Su Myat's Story

Su Myat is a 23-year-old young lady who volunteers in the office. She lives in a bamboo house with an iron roof in Insein Township with her grandfather, uncle, aunt and cousin.

"I couldn't sleep as the bamboo tree was hitting against the house hard all night. Sometime after 1 am the iron roof went. Some of it flew away but some landed in the yard. This was the roof to the living room, kitchen, dining room and my bedroom. Also, a huge "cokko" tree fell and hit the bathroom and the bamboo tree fell on the house. The only rooms left were my aunt's room and the prayer room. We had to use umbrellas inside the house and put raincoats over our furniture. We all spent the rest of the night in my aunt's room. I was very frightened and prayed to Jesus all night. Now we have put plastic over the roof but it is hard to buy new iron sheeting as the price has more than doubled. We are all living in the two rooms that are left."

Htet Aung Hlang's Story

Htet Aung Hlang, a long-term employee, also lives in Insein Township with his wife, 17-month-old son, grandparents and two aunts. He has a two-storey house made of wood with an iron roof.

"The wind was blowing very heavily. A coconut tree fell right next to the house. The iron sheeting on the roof was flapping, then it opened up like a tin can and the water was pouring in. Water was also coming in on the ground floor and everything was floating. The nearby stream had come up four feet to reach the house. In my lounge room the water came up to my chest! We all went into the kitchen as it only had six inches of water. At 2 am my neighbour's house collapsed and was completely destroyed. They all managed to get out but I don't know where they went to. We were very frightened that ours would also fall down so we stood in the doorway in case. When the water went down everything was very muddy from the stream water. We have no water as our water tank was on the ground and it was full of the dirty stream water."

Yandana's Story

Yadana is a volunteer. She is 23 and lives in Thwanna, on the other side of town, in a 2-storey apartment with her uncle, aunt and cousins, seven people in all.

"This was my first big cyclone so I was very frightened. We tied the windows closed with string but at about 8 am all the apartments' roofs came off. There was water in the top floor and the bottom floor. We helped our elderly neighbours then went to the monastery over the road for shelter. There were about 20 people already there and some had been hurt by the flying metal roofing. Many people stayed in their houses because they were afraid of looting.

"We have picked up some of the zinc to repair the roof but not all. We can't buy it; it is rare and expensive. We have now got some old zinc sheets to cover the roof and taken all our wet furniture outside to dry."

Daw Sarah's Story

Daw Sarah lives in North Dagon Township with her two sons. Many houses collapsed in this area but Daw Sarah is grateful to God for sparing hers. She said that all the trees in the street blew down and some fell on houses.

"The roof blew off so we went downstairs, but downstairs flooded so we went back upstairs. We could not stay there with no roof and so much wind and rain so we went down and sat in the kitchen in six inches of water for the rest of the night."

Sai San's Story

Sai San works at the Country Office in Yangon. He had not been able to go home as his relief was not able to come in to replace him because of the storm. He went out to buy food but all the shops had closed. He was worried about his family but he was unable to contact them. When the cyclone hit he could see that the huge fig tree next door would fall onto the office so he took shelter in a car parked around the other side of the building. It was a terrible night and he was very afraid. He was able to contact his family in the morning.

His relief did not come in all weekend as his own house had been destroyed so Sai San stayed at the office and worked tirelessly on the clean-up from the fallen tree. It took many hours of removing branches to be able to access the office doors, reach the generator and make the yard safe.

He did not get back to his own house in Insein Township until Monday. He found that his roof had gone and his house was leaning over so he had to make a support to hold it up and put plastic on the roof for his family. He has a wife and two daughters aged 14 and 16.Now he is working and sleeping at the office again as the bus fares have risen dramatically in the aftermath of the cyclone and he cannot afford the fare home at night. He is worried about his family and he had to pawn a gold ring to pay for the repairs to his house.

Htet Htet's Story

Htet Htet works as a cleaner. Her husband, Aung Myint Thant, also works at the office. They have two small children. Htet Htet was warned about the storm by the office staff and, as her house is near the Yangon River and is in poor condition, she left work at 1.30 pm but arrived home at 4 pm because of the flooding and traffic jams.

The strong wind and heavy rain started at about 10 pm. Their house started shaking but they are used to that in heavy rain. The weather became worse and worse and, at 4 am Saturday, the wind took off their roof and the rain came in. She was distressed because she had borrowed money to build the house and now it was collapsing. They had no place to run and they were afraid to go out from their house. They went to the kitchen where some roof remained but they still got wet. She put a blanket and a plastic bag over her children. They wore plastic bags as caps to cover their heads from water to protect her children from catching a cold. The wind blew through their house with great force and dislocated everything. A cupboard nearly fell down on Htet Htet and her children but luckily Aung Myint Thant stopped it.

The children were wet and cold and shivering so they decided to go to the neighbor's house at 6 am. It was difficult to get there because the storm was still raging and their gourd tree had fallen and was blocking the way. They found other people had taken refuge when they arrived there. Shortly after they left, their home collapsed.

On Monday, she had to walk for half an hour to reach the phone shop to inform the office that she could not come as the bus fare was too high and most buses were not running. The rice bags in the shops had got wet so she had to buy food at high prices. Unexpectedly, admin staff from WCM Country Office came to her house with some food on Monday evening which lasted for some days.

They could not afford to buy zinc so she covered her roof with some plastic, and they still need some wood to support their house. All their money is needed for food for the family and bus fares to work so Htet Htet does not know how to repair her house. Aung Myint Thant rides a bicycle for one and half hours to office everyday to save the bus fare.