Around 10,000 people have died in the cyclone that ripped through the Irrawaddy delta in Burma on Saturday. The scale of the disaster has drawn a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated military generals who rule the country.
Buddhist monks clear up roads damaged by the cyclone in Rangoon
The official toll stands at 3,394 dead and 2,879 missing, although those figures only cover two of the five declared disaster zones, where U.N. officials say hundreds of thousands are without shelter or drinking water.
Earlier official reports put the death toll at 351 but the number of casualties had been expected to rise as authorities made contact with hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the country's rice bowl.
Food and fuel prices soared in the former capital Rangoon today as aid agencies scrambled to deliver emergency supplies and assess the damage from Cyclone Nargis after it slammed into the delta region.
The military, which has ruled for 46 years and is shunned by the West, initially refrained from appealing for help after the Category 3 Cyclone Nargis featuring winds of 190 kph hit on Saturday. However, earlier today it gave the United Nations permission to send emergency aid to help the hundreds of thousands of victims of the cyclone.
In Rangoon, many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings in the cyclone, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on the outskirts of the city of five million people.
Michael Annear, regional disaster chief for the International Red Cross, said emergency supplies were being handed out from stockpiles in Burma, but more was needed.
The UN office in Yangon said there was an urgent need for plastic sheeting, water purification tablets, cooking equipment, mosquito nets, health kits and food.
It said the situation outside Yangon was "critical, with shelter and safe water being the principal immediate needs."
Some 90,000 people were homeless on the island of Haingyi, around 200 km southwest of Yangon on the fringe of the delta.
The World Food Programme said it has stocks of around 500,000 tonnes in Rangoon and hoped to bring in more food.
"It's clear that this is a major disaster," Richard Horsey, of the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok said after an emergency aid meeting.
"How many people are affected? We know that it's in the six figures. We know that it's several hundred thousand needing shelter and clean drinking water, but how many hundred thousand we just don't know," he said.
It is not known whether Burma, the world's largest rice exporter when it won independence from Britain in 1948, will need to import emergency rice supplies
Bunkered down in its new capital, Naypyidaw, the Junta said Nargis has not derailed a May 10th referendum on a new army-drafted constitution.
Minister of State for Overseas Development, Michael Kitt announced today that the Irish Government has pledged €1million for disaster relief and said that Ireland was willing to offer further assistance.
"I have asked my officials to stay in close contact with the UN, the International Red Cross and the NGO community to monitor the situation as it evolves. In particular, it is urgent at this point that we get a thorough assessment of the scale of this disaster in order that the appropriate response can be made available as quickly as possible," said Mr Kitt.
