Burma cyclone response

ActionAid is mobilising staff from other Asian countries to help its partners in Myanmar respond to the devastating cyclone which struck the country at the weekend.

Powerful winds and floods swept away homes on Saturday as cyclone Nargis swept eastwards across Myanmar from the Bay of Bengal.

The scale of the damage became clear on Monday. The authorities said on Tuesday (May 6) that at least 22,500 people have died and up to 41,000 are missing.

According to ActionAid’s emergencies coordinator for Asia Niaz Murtraza, more than three quarters of houses in the affected areas

has been destroyed and and all communications cut off.

"The death toll is 15,000 but that is still a provisional number. Until it is possible to reach the villages, we wont be able to get precise information on the numbers dead and missing," he said.

ActionAid works through local organisations, in more than 30 villages in the area hardest hit by cyclone Nargis, in the Irrawaddy delta, home tro around 24 million people.

“Survivors urgently need temporary shelter, clean water and food but it may take days to reach those areas. The death toll is reported to be 15,000 but that is still a provisional number,” said Shihab Ahmed, ActionAid’s coordinator in Myanmar.