Photo galleries Myanmar Cyclone Nargis from IFRC

May 2008

 

Even relatively sturdy structures such as this house have been severly affected. Additional heavy damaged was caused by a tidal wave that travelled up the river and killed many people.

The cyclone has passed but that does not mean that the rain has not stopped. The International Federation estimates that up to 1 million people have lost their homes and have to spend their days and nights under open skies and has made emergency shelter one of its priorities. However it will still take a couple of days befor many areas can be reached.

Acts of kindness save lives: with no other modes of transport available this young man has chosen to carry an old woman on his back. The elderly are among the most vulnerable groups fof people in a disaster.

First aid: medical supplies are urgently needed as local stocks have been destroyed or deleted.

A moment of respite: a father giving his son something to drink as they are sitting on board a ferry. Lack of safe drinking water is a major problems and reports of diarrhoea are increasing. The Myanmar Red Cross Society, supported by the International Federation, is distributing water purfication tablets.

Approximately 220,000 people have received humanitarian aid since Cyclone Nargis struck. About 80,000 of these were reached by volunteers and staff of the Myanmar Red Cross.

In Bogalay, on the benches of the Irrawaddy River, about 95 per cent of the houses were destroyed. Up to 10,000 people are feared to have died in this town alone.

Stagnant water pools, like in front of these houses, are an ideal breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitos. Myanmar Red Cross is distributing insecticide treated mosquito-nets to reduce the number of infections and deaths caused my malaria.

Water is only receding slowly and new rainfall is forecast for the next days. With no access to safe drinking water, many survivors are forced to drink from murky, brown water that carries the corpses of livestock and former neighbours.

 Myanmar Red Cross has begun distributing rice in Yangon and more has already been sent to the delta area by road.

 

 

 

 

 Speaking by phone to the International Federation office in Yangon, Bridget said the most urgent needs were for shelter, clean water and first aid materials.

 

 

 

The situation in the Irrawaddy delta area in Myanmar is reported to be “overwhelming” according to Federation representative Bridget Gardener, the first international aid official to visit the disaster zone with government approval.

 

The International Federation is stepping up its efforts to get food and water to those most affected by cyclone Nargis.

 

 

  

Myanmar Red Cross workers load rice donated by the World Food Programme form a warehouse near Yangon today. 30 tons of rice is being distributed to three locaitons in the badly-affected delta region, and six locations in Yangon.

Food aid is also on the move, with 30 tons of World Food Programme rice, sourced in Myanmar, currently being loaded onto trucks for distribution by Myanmar Red Cross volunteers in the main city and in the Delta region, where hundreds of thousands of people are in need.

Cyclose Nargis survivors at a sports centre outside Yangon which has become their home since the disaster. Out of 504 people there, over 10 have skin diseases and respiratory tract infections.

 

 

Aid arriving aboard an ICRC flight at Yangon airport.

 

 

 

 

A typical scene of destruction 30 kilometres from the centre of Yangon.

 

 

 

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced following the destruction of their homes. Many are living in schools, hospitals and other public buildings, with no electricity, running water or sanitation. There are fears of outbreaks of disease as water levels remain high.

A small boy plays in a pool of water near his home on the outskirts of Yangon. The water, blacky-brown and foul smelling, is exposing many people to serious water-borne diseases.

 

Family members sit in their home destroyed by cyclone Nargis at a Myanmar town of Bogalay, southwest of Yangon May 8, 2008. Survivors with harrowing tales of villages smashed by cyclone Nargis are paddling wooden boats to the Myanmar town of Bogalay to find whole streets destroyed and food and water scarce. (REUTERS/Strringer/courtesy www.alertnet.org)

A woman cooks food for her family at her home destroyed by cyclone Nargis at a Myanmar town of Bogalay, southwest of Yangon May 8, 2008. (REUTERS/Strringer/courtesy www.alertnet.org)

People clear fallen trees in Yangon May 4, 2008. The powerful Cyclone nargis that slammed into Myanmar’s low-lying Irrawaddy delta triggered a massive wave that gave people nowhere to run, killing at least 15,000 and leaving 30,000 others missing, officials said on Tuesday. It is the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.