Burma Cyclone Relief

The Myanmar Government has restricted travel for foreigners into the Irrawaddy Division. Burmese nationals, however, have been able to deliver relief supplies and conduct assessment in the delta. The following are reports from the field from staff and volunteers to World Concern Burma - many involved with small local organisations.

From Pyapon Township, south-east of Bogalay

"We were invited to visit the affected area, an area that we had been to in the past, with a leader who was returning to his native village. He had been visiting his home village with his eleven-year-old son on the night of the storm. As the wind and rain increased he had realised that there was going to be a lot of damage so he went from house to house in his community and persuaded people to move from their bamboo and wooden houses into the brick church building, The next morning he went with his son into Yangon for help, travelling by boat, motorbike and foot, arriving cold, wet and exhausted in the evening.

We travelled to the Pyapon area, about 4 hours (180 km) from Yangon, by car on the Wednesday, five days after the cyclone. We took 5 million kyat (US$5,000) worth of essential supplies with us, including plastic sheeting, Water Guard (water purification treatment), dried biscuits, rice and medicine - including oral rehydration salts, pain medication and antiseptic lotion.

The road was passable, but after 2 or 3 hours we were stopped by a military road block. A helicopter had landed on the road while a high ranking official was visiting the area. After about an hour we were allowed to continue.

When we arrived in Pyapon we could see that most houses had been damaged and many had been laid flat. There were people around the town and the tea houses, an important centre of Myanmar community life, were operating. We visited a church in that town that had been so badly damaged that only the frame was left standing. Only one of the neighbouring houses was still standing. We met an elderly lady there who was very distressed. She said she had lost everything and there was only God for support now.

After leaving some supplies for some badly affected people there we loaded the rest of the supplies onto a small boat and set off for some remote villages. In the river we saw many dead animals: buffalo, pigs, dogs, chickens, and we also saw human bodies. I have to say that after the first five human bodies I just stopped counting. They had been in the water 5 days now. It was very distressing.

Although the area that we were in was less affected than areas closer to the sea (where the water level had risen by 3 meters), the destruction was evident. The water level had risen here to about 80 cm and gone down again after a couple of hours. The wind had been overwhelming. Most of the houses had been flattened. There were lots of people along the river picking up the pieces of their lives. Some were cleaning and washing household items and clothing that had been muddied by the flood waters, others were trying to dry their rice stores in between the showers of rain that are making the recovery more difficult. I found it confronting that someone would be washing in the river only 10 meters away from a dead buffalo, or that 50 meters away there was a dead child floating in the river. No one was collecting the dead bodies.

At the first village that we stopped to distribute supplies, they told us that on their side of the river 500 people had drowned or were missing, and on the other side the figure was 200. We asked what they had had to eat today and they said that they had had a little rice and salt. They did not have any vegetables or meat. Nearly all of their livestock and vegetable gardens were lost. We asked them what they needed and they told us: clean water and medicine. They also said that they had received no help yet and no one had been to ask about their dead and missing.

We found that the people had a strong coping mechanism and we were impressed by their amazing capacity to continue on in a dignified way. Here, no one expects external help and people help themselves and others as best they can. We saw boats pass by taking building materials to communities up river as people put back roofs and walls on structures left standing. Many are rebuilding using debris and any bamboo they can find.

Finally, we reached the leader's home village, another half an hour along the river. The death toll here seemed to have been around 70. It is likely that the leader saved many lives by moving people into the church during the cyclone. The church building had sustained only minor damage and was still being used as a shelter for many people. The atmosphere in the temporary settlement was calm and friendly and the inhabitants even thanked us for coming. They had very limited supplies of necessities, but they have not lost everything like in some areas, and have kept or recovered various cooking pots and water jars. Many of these, however, are damaged and there is a need for containers to catch the rain water as a source of clean drinking water. Water will continue to be an issue as the shallow wells have been contaminated by the muddy flood waters and the pumps on the tube wells have been broken off. Rain water harvesting will be an important activity during the wet season that is just beginning. To add to the difficulties, the firewood supplies are now wet and the continuing rains are not allowing any real drying of fuel. We found that another major concern for the people of this area was that this is the rice planting season, and by June there must be seed in every field. Now their rice is all wet. Rice that has been wet and dried is edible but is no use as seed for the next crop. During the recovery process they will need rice seed, farm implements and draught animals to prevent a famine from the loss of a whole rice season.

Returning to Pyapon at about 4 pm we were humbled by the generous spirit of the community there that had prepared a simple meal for us to share. "

From Ayerawaddy region:

"We had been so busy at the office with a coordination role in the relief effort, but I was so anxious for the people of the area and I was frustrated that I could not do more for them. I could not sleep at night because I was so worried about them. I spent a lot of my childhood in the Pyapon area as my father was a government doctor there. Also, only last year, I worked there in a development project and I knew a lot of people there.

First we travelled to Kawtmu where there were 30 families taking refuge in the church. All the houses around the church had been destroyed. They did not have enough rice to eat it every day, so on alternate days they were only eating rice porridge. Five of the children had diarrhoea. We had a doctor with us so he was able to give them treatment. We gave the people there five bags of rice and also high-energy biscuits and building supplies. They were very happy to see us. You could see it on their faces. I felt so full of pity for them, so sorry for them. There was not much room for so many people in the church and they were tightly packed without much space. The leader of the group was very worried about the people. The only help they had received officially was two small tins of condensed milk. From that town we travelled on to Dedaye. There were people walking along the road on their way to government distribution sites. They were looking hopefully at the cars that passed them and asking the passers by to please help them. I was riding in the rear car of our three cars and I was getting very distressed that the front car kept going without stopping. I wanted him to stop so we could give them something. Then the group leader who was in the front car did stop and he came back to ask us if it was OK to give them some of the supplies as he was feeling bad for them too. We said that we could buy more food in Dedaye so we started handing out biscuits and noodles to the people on the way. After passing through Dedaye we saw many small huts had been built along the road. It was higher ground than the paddy fields and people had moved there away from the water and in the hope of getting help. They were drying their wet rice in the sun but it smelt very bad. I would not like to have to eat that rice. We distributed more biscuits to the people camped along the road. One woman and her three small sons were living in a tiny shelter with a roof that you could see the sky through. They had no clean drinking water, only the dark-coloured water in the stream. Nobody was helping them. All the cars were passing them by. I was very sad and promised that I would come back with more food next week. I hope I can find them again.

When we got to Pyapon we found that the ninety-nine houses around the church had all been destroyed. There used to be over five hundred people living in that compound. The flood in that area had come up to their chests. A lot of people had died in the township but the ones who had sheltered in the church had all survived. Now, some had gone to build themselves plastic tents to live in because some people were being moved on to the Maubin temporary settlement. People in that area did not want to go and they had sent urgent messages to people in Yangon, who had brought them food and plastic to build shelters. Private temporary settlements are not allowed.

Our next stop was Jaiklat. There were people staying in the church compound but the church roof had blown away and nearly all the houses were badly damaged. This was the area that I recently worked in so I was very relieved to find that no one had died in this community. When they saw me and recognised me they were very happy. They begged us to "Please save us and help us". I was able to tell them to calm down and that they would be safe. I was able to reassure and encourage them. I felt that these people were better off than many that I had seen that day and I did not feel too bad for them, although they need help to repair their houses. We left some food with the community leader and continued on our way. In Maubin we visited a temporary settlement in the High School that had 1300 people in it. The chief of the settlement was the Head Master of the school and he had known my father and he recognised me. We found that the place was a good one and well managed. I met some old people there who looked very sad and depressed. One old woman was crying and she told me she had lost 2 daughters and 12 grandchildren in the cyclone.

We noticed that most people at this place had one longyi (traditional male wear) but no shirt. The cyclone came at night and in the morning many people had found that all their clothes had gone. Some of those people had had to take clothes from dead bodies or else they would be naked. The chief of the temporary settlement asked us to send clothing for the people. Bathing at the settlement was a problem for them as the people had to share one wet longyi (to cover themselves as they bathed) as each person only had the one dry one that they were wearing. They also needed mosquito nets as the area has many mosquitoes and also shoes. No one in the place had any footwear. We went onto the town to buy them rice as we had given all ours away already.

The next day our church organisation sent supplies to the temporary settlement. The leader went around to his members in Yangon early in the morning and asked them to find clothes and shoes that morning so they could be sent the same day. They collected 7 bags of clothes. They also sent oil, mosquito coils, lighters, candles and food items. We heard that now WFP has sent rice to that place.

I planned to go back this week end to take care of the people living beside the road but my church leader asked, "How will they survive till then?" so he lent us some money and we made up packages of supplies for families and today my family has taken them out to the area. Now I am very happy and relieved that I have done something to help but I will not stop worrying until my family comes back and tells me how it went."

From Yangon Division:

"We were initially going to use the local church as the distribution site but we found that it just was not there anymore. It had been made of bamboo and just the concrete slab was left! Everything in the area had been wrecked. We unloaded about 35 bags of rice and put them under a local house while we sent out information to the people to tell them we were here. They quickly gathered, bringing containers and plastic bags. They all came and lined up in a queue. We did not stay long, only about 45-60 minutes. The community leader gave out lots of rice, depending on the family size, into peoples' pots and bags. I was surprised how quiet and calm and orderly they all were. The people were smiling and very happy to be given some help. It was beautiful to see the children smiling. Everyone was happy."

From Yangon Division:

"At the next place that we went to there was a temporary shelter in a damayone, a Buddhist meeting place. This was being used as a temporary shelter and there were hammocks and curtain walls inside for the sleeping area. When the word was sent out that we were there, the people gathered quickly for their share. There were children there and they were mostly happy, although some looked withdrawn and sad.

There were many old people there too. They were quiet and depressed-looking. They were not talking. Even though they were very happy to have the rice, they were not really smiling. We could not stay long as we had more rice to deliver so I was sad that I could not stay and talk with the old people. At the last area that we went to we had heard that there were many people staying at the school. When we got there we found that many had gone home to work on rebuilding their houses. We sent out people to look for them and then we went on to the monastery. There were many children there. We met the monk who had been cooking for all the displaced people. We asked him to hand out the rice to the families staying in his monastery and we gave him 35 bags. The children there were happy and playing like children do. All the people were very happy to get the supplies. So then we went back to the school and were pleased to see that many people had come back from their houses to receive the rice. It was handed out by the Local Authority leader with help from some local policemen. We were happy that we had found the people and also that they were getting on with rebuilding their lives."

From Yangon Division:

"Our group went out to help those who had not received any support yet. An assessment trip on the day before had concluded that no-one had been out to help this place, even though it was quite close to Yangon. The settlement is near the fields on the edge of town and the huts there had flown away during the storm. Three people died there during Cyclone Nargis. They can't resettle as most of them are manual workers and farmers. There are no job opportunities right now for them and their fields are ruined. We went as a small local organization group, and left the car in one place. Then we divided the rice bags that we had already packed into smaller rations. The group's members walked along the different small roads separately and gave out the rice bags house by house. We were surprised that some of them even cried for happiness and told us that they hadn't got any help before then, even though they had suffered a lot during the storm. They thanked our team and hoped for more help for them."