A boy plays in front of his home destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in Bogalay, south west of Yangon. Picture: courtesy of www.alertnet.org
Staff of a Tearfund partner in Myanmar have been giving first-hand accounts of the terrifying devastation inflicted by Cyclone Nargis.
World Concern Myanmar, along with the Myanmar Baptist Convention – which has links to 4,000 churches – are two of our Christian partners working to help survivors of last weekend’s storm. (To find out more about our partners, click here)
World Concern Myanmar is helping medical teams in three of the worst affected areas and carrying out relief activities.
But many of its workers and volunteers were themselves affected by the cyclone.
Su Myat, 23, was living in her bamboo house in Insein township, Yangon, with her grandfather, uncle, aunt and cousin
Su said, `Sometime after 1am, the iron roof went, some of it flew away but some landed in the yard. This was the roof to the living room, kitchen, dining room and my bedroom.
Tree fall
`A huge cokko tree fell and hit the bathroom and a bamboo tree fell on the house. The only rooms left were my aunt’s room and the prayer room.
`We had to use umbrellas inside the house and put raincoats over our furniture.
`We all spent the rest of the night in my aunt’s room. I was very frightened and prayed to Jesus all night.
`Now we've put plastic over the roof but it's hard to buy new iron sheeting as the price has more than doubled. We're all living in the two rooms that are left.’
World Concern Myanmar employee Htet Aung Hlang also lives in the same area. He spoke of the iron sheeting of his two-storey house being ripped open `like a tin can’.
`Water was coming in on the ground floor and everything was floating. The nearby stream has come up 4 feet to reach the house.
Collapsed house
`In my lounge, the water came up to my chest. At 2am, my neighbour’s house collapsed and was completely destroyed.
`They all managed to get out but I don’t know where they went.
`When the water went down everything was very muddy from the stream water. We have no water as our water tank was on the ground and is now full of dirty water.’
In the midst of the damage caused by 120mph winds and extensive flooding, stories of Christian compassion and neighbourliness in action have emerged.
Yadana, 23, is a World Concern Myanmar volunteer living on the other side of town.
`This was my first big cyclone so I was very frightened,’ she said. `We helped our elderly neighbours and then went to the monastery over the road for shelter.’
A flooded street in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar. Picture: courtesy www.alertnet.org