Red Cross rushes aid to Myanmar cyclone victims

BANGKOK: Aid agencies on Monday rushed emergency food and water supplies to victims of a massive storm in Myanmar which killed hundreds of people and left tens of thousands homeless, a Red Cross spokesman said.

Tropical cyclone Nargis left at least 351 dead after hitting southwest Myanmar at the weekend, packing winds of 190 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, razing thousands of buildings and knocking out power lines, state media reported.

Several coastal villages had been destroyed according to a preliminary assessment by the International Federation of the Red Cross, spokesman Michael Annear told AFP.

The villages in the Ayeyawaddy (Irrawaddy) delta bore the brunt of the storm which came in from the Bay of Bengal and combined with a sea surge before hitting the main city Yangon. State media said nearly 98,000 were homeless on the delta's Haing Gyi island alone.

Annear said teams in Myanmar were distributing essential supplies and would be bringing in more from Malaysia as soon as possible.

"We're distributing supplies for those who need shelter, plastic sheeting to cover roofs, water purification tablets, we are currently procuring 5,000 litres of water, cooking items, bed-nets, blankets and clothes for those in most need," he said.

"We went out as soon as possible but there were problems with mobility due to a lot of debris and power lines down. Authorities and the local community have been clearing the road networks so mobility has increased today.

"Assessment teams have been a lot better getting through to affected areas but it's going to take a number of days to get an overall picture of the overall disaster," he said, adding that Yangon's airport was expected to reopen on Monday.

International Red Cross teams would be connecting with the local Myanmar Red Cross where more than 1,000 workers are trained in assessment and relief.

United Nations agencies and international charities were meeting later on Monday at the UN's Bangkok headquarters to coordinate their response to the disaster.

"We have called in the relief agencies and we will be discussing the overview of the situation, what we expect to happen over the course of the day and what activities are foreseen by the agencies," Terje Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP.

All the major UN agencies involved in the disaster response were attending, including the World Health Organisation, the UN Children's Fund and World Food Programme, alongside the International Federation of the Red Cross and major aid organisations Save the Children and Oxfam.

Myanmar's national Red Cross was the only agency able to begin assessment of the damage on Sunday, but a number of other agencies had now started their own assessments, Skavdal said.

"Collating the data will take some time," he said. "Because of communication problems with phone lines down people will have to come back to Yangon to share their findings."

The IFRC has sent assessment teams to Yangon, the Ayeyawaddy, Karen, Bago regions and may also deploy to Mon state.

- AFP/so