YANGON —

The death toll from the cyclone that devastated the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar last weekend may exceed 100,000, the top U.S. diplomat in the nation said Wednesday.  ‘‘The information that we’re receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area,’’ said Shari Villarosa, the charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar.

The new estimate came after Myanmar’s state radio reported Wednesday night that the death toll from the cyclone has risen to 22,980. It said 42,119 people were still missing and 1,383 injured in Cyclone Nargis that tore through the country from Friday to Saturday.

The latest death toll for Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, is reported to be 679, Villarosa told reporters. The majority of causalities come from the Irrawaddy delta, which produces the majority of Myanmar’s rice and fish.

The top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar described the situation in the delta, where 95% of the buildings have been destroyed and supplies of food and drinkable water are close to running out, as ‘‘more and more horrendous.’’

Only a handful of U.N. aid workers had been let into the impoverished Southeast Asian country, which the government has kept isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control. The U.S. and other countries rushed supplies to the region, but most of it was being held outside Myanmar while awaiting the junta’s permission to deliver it.

Entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta were still submerged from Saturday’s storm, and bloated corpses could be seen stuck in the mangroves. Some survivors stripped clothes off the dead. People wailed as they described the horror of the torrent swept ashore by the cyclone.

A spokesman for the U.N. Children’s Fund said its staff in Myanmar reported seeing many people huddled in rude shelters and children who had lost their parents.

“There’s widespread devastation. Buildings and health centers are flattened and bloated dead animals are floating around, which is an alarm for spreading disease. These are massive and horrific scenes,” Patrick McCormick said at UNICEF offices in New York.

A few shops reopened in the Irrawaddy delta, but they were quickly overwhelmed by desperate people, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in Bangkok, Thailand, quoting his agency’s workers in the area.

A Yangon resident who returned to the city from the delta area said people were drinking coconut water because there was no safe drinking water. He said many people were on boats using blankets as sails.

Local aid groups distributed rice porridge, which people collected in dirty plastic shopping bags, he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared getting into trouble with authorities for talking to a foreign news agency.

U.N. officials estimated some 1 million people had been left homeless in Myanmar.

Some aid workers said heavily flooded areas were accessible only by boat, with helicopters unable to find dry spots for landing relief supplies.

“Basically the entire lower delta region is under water,” said Richard Horsey, the Thailand-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

“Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water,” he said. This is “a major, major disaster we’re dealing with.”

International assistance began trickling in Wednesday with the first shipments of medicine, clothing and food. But the junta, which normally restricts access by foreign officials and groups, was slow to give permission for workers to enter.

“Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out,” said the minutes of a meeting of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Bangkok.

McCormick, the UNICEF spokesman, said the agency had 130 people in Myanmar but needed to get more in.

“We’re hopeful they will start fast-tracking visas for humanitarian personnel,” he said. “The government clearly weren’t prepared and needs to step up to the plate. We can’t work in a vacuum, and we need the host government to work with us and to eventually take over.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to speed the arrival of aid workers and relief supplies “in every way possible.”

As they wrangled with Myanmar officials over visas, aid groups struggled to deliver supplies.

“Most urgent need is food and water,” said Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children in Yangon. “Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can’t use tablets to purify salt water.”

State television said Myanmar would accept aid from any country. It also said planes flew in Wednesday with tents from Japan, medicine and clothing from Bangladesh and India, packets of noodles from Thailand and dried bacon from China.

The first U.N. flights, carrying 45 metric tons of high energy biscuits, were due to arrive early Thursday.

Some aid workers said that the government wanted emergency supplies to be distributed by relief workers already in place, rather than through foreign staff brought into Myanmar.

U.S. President George W Bush said the U.S. was ready to deliver aid and was prepared to use Navy ships and aircraft to help search for the dead and missing. But it wasn’t known if the junta, which regularly accuses Washington of trying to subvert its rule, would accept an American military operation in its territory.

Three Navy warships participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Thailand were standing by. A U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane also landed in Thailand and another was on the way, Air Force spokeswoman Megan Orton said at the Pentagon.

In Yangon, many angry residents complained that the military regime had given vague and incorrect information about the approaching storm and provided no instructions on how to cope when it struck.

Officials in India said they had warned Myanmar about the cyclone two days before it roared into the low-lying Irrawaddy delta. B.P. Yadav, spokesman for the Indian Meteorological Department, said the agency spotted the developing storm on April 28 and gave regular updates to all countries in its path.

Myanmar told the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva that it warned people in newspapers, television and radio broadcasts of the impending storm, said Dieter Schiessl, director of the WMO’s disaster risk reduction unit.

Jim Andrews, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said satellite photos showed flooding of similar magnitude to that of Hurricane Katrina. “It’s a similar kind of land to New Orleans ... an intricate network of tidal creeks and openings that allow easy access for a powerful storm surge to penetrate right into populated land,” he said.

State television quoted a government official, Gen Tha Aye, as reassuring people the situation was “returning to normal.”

But residents of Yangon faced doubled prices for rice, charcoal, bottled water and cooking oil.

At a suburban market, a fishmonger shouted to shoppers: “Come, come the fish is very fresh.” But an angry woman snapped: “Even if the fish is fresh, I have no water to cook it!”

Most residents of Yangon rely on wells with electric pumps for water, and power had been restored to only a small part of the city.

The cyclone came a week before a referendum on a proposed constitution backed by the junta. State radio said Saturday’s vote would be delayed in areas affected by the storm, but balloting would proceed elsewhere.

A top U.S. envoy to Southeast Asia said the junta should be focusing on helping cyclone victims.

“It’s a huge crisis and it just seems odd to me that the government would go ahead with the referendum in this circumstance,” said Scot Marciel, the U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

This week, first lady Laura Bush called the referendum a sham, and she also criticized the junta’s handling of the storm. “We know already that they are very inept,” she said.

The comments drew rebukes even from some Myanmar exiles, who normally are strongly critical of the ruling generals.

Aye Chan Naing, editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Myanmar opposition media operation based in Norway, said it wasn’t the right time to be chastising the junta.

“Everybody knows what kind of regime they are, so there is no question about that. The question right now is how to get the aid into the country,” he said. “So the best way is to use a diplomatic way and to have an open dialogue and keep talking until they agree.”

Wire reports

15 Comments

• 

  Nyein_Chan at 11:09 AM JST - 8th May

  Helping Burma and Getting Visa

  Some INGOs are requesting that the Burmese government waive the visa (completely) for their staff. This is not going to happen.

  The following is what can be done to expedite the process without scrapping it all together.

  First, the Burmese Embassies around the world will make the visa application of the INGO staff the first priority. Keep the consulate open even for the holidays and weekends. (The delay caused by the holiday closure of Burmese Embassy in Thailand in occasion of a Thai Holiday should and would not be repeated.)

  Second, the INGOs should screen their own staff, and have their staff signed the customary pledge form. Their mission into Burma is relief and humanitarian assistance for the Cyclone victims, not for political purposes and not for referendum monitoring.

  Thirdly, since some INGOs are better than others in getting their staff disengaged from politics in Burma, the visa application for the staff of the INGOs with better track records should take less time and, if possible, be done within a single day.

  I hope that although the visa application process of INGOs staff cannot be waived, it could be expedited. (Except for those in Thailand, INGO staff cannot leave the home base in one day anyway.)

  If the visa application process take only one day, and some INGOs still insist on visa waiver – right before the referendum on May 10 – some might begin to wonder why those INGOs are insisting on visa waiver.

  The ongoing problem is NOT that the international aid teams “are bogged down by a bureaucracy still reluctant to open its borders to foreigners.” The Burmese Embassies around the world are willing to expedite the visa process (within a day) but the INGOs didn’t screen their aid workers. Some journalists, political activists and referendum monitors MAY be camouflaging as aid workers.

  So both sides must do their for the sake of Burmese people. INGO should screen the aid workers they are going to send into the country. Burmese Embassies should make visa decisions with their full capacity within one day.

• 

  tclh at 11:54 AM JST - 8th May

  Poor Burmese people,what did they do to have a so called"government" like these military dictators?These dictators are only interesting in keeping their positions intact and could not care less about these victims.These dictators should all commit seppuku,or at least resign if they have any concience left.So incompetent.Corpses,diseases,starvations,homeless..everywhere but they are still talking about visa application.SICK.INSANE.

• 

  Triumvere at 12:42 PM JST - 8th May

  Will this be the end of the junta? Perhaps, if they don't find a way to deal with the situation....

• 

  some14some at 02:32 PM JST - 8th May

  Higher death toll estimate by the US diplomat is not going to prompt military rulers to lower the visa requisite because they are wary of dummy Relief Organisation with sole purpose of carrying out political activities in Myanmar. No goverment will take chance with nation's security.

• 

  Jyan_Bon at 05:40 PM JST - 8th May

  to some14some;......"they are wary of dummy Relief Organisation with sole purpose of carrying out political activities in Myanmar...." God! your paranoia towards simple aid workers can only be compared with "Theives will consider every Policeman a potential enemy"

• 

  Jyan_Bon at 05:49 PM JST - 8th May

  The junta is blocking the international aid workers because of upcoming referendom on 10th May. They have a nation wide plan (of vote rigging) to coerce the population to vote YES. The very reason why the junta is repeatedly refuse to allow international observers, including the UN.

  "JUST WAIT AND SEE, THE AID WORKERS WILL BE ALLOWED INTO BURMA ONLY AFTER THE 10th. OF MAY ".

• 

  some14some at 10:01 PM JST - 8th May

  Jyan Bon: UN plane with plenty of aid has landed in Myanmar, according to news reports through Western Media...! wish same concerns were expressed for people in Iraq by US diplomats.

• 

  schnauzertdad at 11:02 PM JST - 8th May

  Anybody notice the conspicuous absence of oil rich nations in the Middle East like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and others nations like Russia and Venezuela from offering aid to Myanmar??? These nations are making an ABSOLUTE KILLING ON OIL AT OVER $120/BARREL. Wouldn't one think they might consider helping a nation that just got decimated? Na...they are to busy raping the world to donate say 3 minutes worth of oil proceeds to help anybody else.

• 

  adaydream at 11:43 PM JST - 8th May

  I'm just devistated at how these people are suffering. My wife and I were sitting in our warm house last night wondering how people survive in conditions like this. And for leaders to be against their own people and not allowing those who can help and have offered to help, that they put up roadblocks against this assistance.

• 

  adaydream at 11:49 PM JST - 8th May

  and schnauzertdad, I was stunned to read this article.

  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news pid=20601104&sid=agxrk6t68sIY&refer=mideast

  France tried today to raise the subject of Myanmar's obstructionism in the UN Security Council. Russia, China and South Africa fought France's proposal to be briefed by the UN's emergency relief coordinator, and the move failed.

  When world leaders are getting in the way of simple discussion about the emergency.

• 

  Jyan_Bon at 02:14 AM JST - 9th May

  THESE MYANMAR GENERALS MUST BE PROSECUTED AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE FOR "CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY".

• 

  Jyan_Bon at 02:44 AM JST - 9th May

  How many more poor and innocent Burmese/Myanmar people must die before the self-appointed,cruel junta changes it's paranoia mentality and hostile attitude towards the international community.

• 

  SuperLib at 03:45 AM JST - 9th May

  When world leaders are getting in the way of simple discussion about the emergency.

  That's why I'm against expanding the UN security council. If you think the practice of blocking agendas for political purposes is bad now, imagine including a few more agendas.

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  1keiron at 07:17 AM JST - 9th May

  Hmph and while all this political B.S is happening there are people suffering more people will die. I'll definatley volunteer for my summer holidays if there's a slot.

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  Jyan_Bon at 09:37 PM JST - 9th May

  some14some: the high energy food for the victims which the UN did manage to get through to Yangon yesterday is now being seized by the junta. What will your comments be?

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