On 2 May 2008 Cyclone Nargis, a category 4 storm, slammed into Burma’s Irrawaddy River Delta which had received little or no warning to prepare by the government controlled media. The wind, rain, and 3 m high storm surge took the lives of 130,000, mostly women, children and the elderly. The government prevented most international aid from entering the country.
My journal account:
I went down with two colleagues to a town called Pyapon,
in the Irrawaddy River Delta. We rented a boat and
headed straight in the direction of the sea which is less
than 10 miles south.
By simply crossing over to the other side of the river, we
were able to identify the first body, blown up and bloated in
the midday sun.
At first villagers pointed out bodies. We asked if they
knew these people, left discarded on the beach? They
said, that they did not. They had been washed up the river
from villages closer to the sea, closer to the storm surge.
Within 30 minutes we had counted over 30 bodies. Most
were women and three were children. One child, no more
than two years old, had a length of twine tied to her ankle,
suggesting her mother’s vain attempt not to be separated
from her beloved child. It had failed.
We left the boat. The houses of Nawpyando were shattered.
People had died here too.
Villagers had climbed up high into their houses hoping to survive,
praying that their houses would hold together in the wind and
flood. Most survived, though they were still listless from
the trauma.
Women would still do their washing of clothes in the
river, where bodies of the dead and animals bobbed.
There was some rice, not much else. No help,
from the government, had arrived.
