Cyclone kills more than 350 in Burma

YANGON, Burma (AP) — A powerful cyclone killed more than 350 people, destroyed thousands of homes and knocked out power in the country’s largest city, state-run media said today.

Five regions of the impoverished Southeast Asian country have been declared disaster zones following Tropical Cyclone Nargis, which struck early yesterday with winds of up to 120 mph, the military-run Myaddy television station said.

It said at least 351 people were killed, including 109 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country’s southwest coast. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.

Witnesses said yesterday’s cyclone blew the roofs off hundreds of houses and knocked out power in all of Yangon, the country’s main city.

The Myaddy television station says five regions of the country have been declared disaster zones. Yangon, Irrawaddy, Bago, Karen and Mon states were all heavily damaged by the cyclone, which packed winds of up to 120 mph.

In the Irrawaddy’s Labutta township, 75 percent of the buildings had collapsed, state television said.

“The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge,” said Chris Kaye, the U.N.’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. “The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened.”

The U.N. planned to send teams tomorrow to assess the damage, he said. Initial assessment efforts have been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.

At the moment, we have such poor opportunity for communications that I can’t really tell you very much,” Kaye said.

“It’s a bad situation. Almost all the houses are smashed. People are in a terrible situation,” said a United Nations official in Yangon, who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to a reporter.

“All the roads are blocked. There is no water. There is no electricity,” she said.

Casualties had been expected after Nargis hit Burma’s commercial capital at about 5 a.m. local time yesterday.

Yangon residents ventured out today to buy construction materials to repair their homes. Some people interviewed expressed anger that the military led government had done little so far to help with the cleanup.

“Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?” said one man, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. “They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity.”

The cyclone came at a delicate time for Burma, which is scheduled to hold a referendum May 10 on the country’s military backed draft constitution.

A military managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country’s new constitution. The junta’s hand-picked delegates included those representing workers.

The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of a “road map to democracy” drawn up by the junta, which has been in power for two decades.

Opposition parties have criticized the draft constitution as designed to cement military power and have urged citizens to vote no.

Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after yesterday’s storm.

“Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?” said a trishaw driver who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. “They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity.”

Burma has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.

Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.

The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of the country urged the military junta today to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone something it has been reluctant to do in the past.

It would be difficult for other countries to help unless they received a request from Burma’s military rulers.

“International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required. The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone,” said Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based forum.

Yangon residents also said yesterday that the price of gasoline had jumped from $2.50 to $10 a gallon on the black market and everything from eggs to construction supplies had tripled.

The state-owned newspaper New Light of Myanmar, meanwhile, reported that the international airport in Yangon remained shut but state-run television said it could be opened by tomorrow. Domestic flights have been diverted to the airport in Mandalay.