Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta is one of the areas worst affected by Cyclone Nargis. This is the experience of one Tearfund partner who travelled into the area:
`We travelled to the Pyapon area, about four hours from Yangon, by car, five days after the cyclone.
We took essential supplies with us, including plastic sheeting, water purification treatment, dried biscuits, rice and medicine.
When we arrived in Pyapon, we could see that most houses had been damaged and many had been laid flat.
A young boy sits by the wreckage of a home near Kyauktan. Picture: courtesy of alertnet.org
We visited a church in the town that had been so badly damaged only the frame was left standing. We met an elderly lady there who was very distressed. She said she had lost everything and there was only God for support now.
After leaving some supplies for some badly affected people there, we loaded the rest of the supplies onto a small boat and set off for remote villages.
In the river we saw many dead animals: buffalo, pigs, dogs, chickens and we also saw human bodies.
I have to say that after the first five human bodies I just stopped counting. They had been in the water 5 days now. It was very distressing.
Picking up the pieces
Although the area that we were in was less affected than areas closer to the sea, the destruction was evident.
The water level had risen here to about 80cm and gone down again after a couple of hours. The wind had been overwhelming. Most of the houses had been flattened.
Makeshift shelters are now home to many who have lost nearly everything in Cyclone Nargis. Picture: Htein Win
There were lots of people along the river picking up the pieces of their lives.
Some were cleaning and washing household items and clothing that had been muddied by the flood waters, others were trying to dry their rice stores in between the showers of rain that are making the recovery more difficult.
I found it disconcerting that someone would be washing in the river only 10 metres away from a dead buffalo or that 50 metres away there was a dead child floating in the river. No one was collecting the dead bodies.
At the first village that we stopped to distribute supplies they told us that on their side of the river 500 people had drowned or were missing and on the other side the figure was 200.
We asked what they had to eat today and they said that they had a little rice and salt. They did not have any vegetables or meat. Nearly all of their livestock and vegetable gardens were lost.
We asked them what they needed and they told us, clean water and medicine. They also said they had received no help yet and no one had been to ask about their dead and missing.
Dignity
We found the people had a strong coping mechanism and we were impressed by their amazing capacity to continue in a dignified way.
Here, no one expects external help and people help themselves and others as best they can.
We saw boats pass by taking building materials to communities up river as people put back roofs and walls on structures left standing. Many are rebuilding using debris and any bamboo they can find.
Finally we reached the leader’s home village, another half an hour along the river. The death toll here seemed to have been around 70.
It is likely that the leader saved many lives by moving people into the church during the cyclone. The church building had sustained only minor damage and was still being used as a shelter for many people.
The atmosphere in the temporary settlement was calm and friendly and the inhabitants even thanked us for coming.
They had very limited supplies of necessities but they have not lost everything like in some areas.
Returning to Pyapon, we were humbled by the generous spirit of the community there that had prepared a simple meal for us to share.'