Chaos and a fight for life

The destructions after the cyclone Nargis are huge. DanChurchAid's representative reports from the delta area which was hit most severely and where no one has received any help and where dead people and animals are floating in the rivers

" It started to rain at eight o'clock in the evening. Two hours later the rain had become so heavy that the priest gathers his family and goes to the church for shelter as this is the most solid building in the village. The priest warns the rest of the village in a fight against time. At midnight the water has risen so much that the people in the church are unable to go out. In order not to drown they stand on chairs which they have placed on top of the pews."

DanChurchAid's representative in Burma, tells us the story about the local priest with a trembling voice over the phone. The priest who, wishes to be anonymous, has like thousands of other Burmese, had to fight to save his own life and the life of others, when the cyclone Nargis hit Burma's densely populated delta area on May 2nd.

"At five o'clock the next morning the water had withdrawn. They were able to leave the church and watch the destructions. Half the village had disappeared. Palme trees had been broken and the wells filled with seawater," DanChurchAid's representative in Burma reports. She has just returned to Rangoon after a trip to the priest's village.

Snapshots from the land of disaster Together with the priest DanChurchAid's representative had packed all the emergency assistance they could fit into a small truck: water purifying tablets, salt and sugar mixtures, plastic sheets, medicine and crackers.

During their ride on the mainland before the beginning of the delta, they find more people from the priest's congregation near the village of Bogale.

"In a two-storied house where the entire first floor had been torn off we found 16 people who were staying on 40 square metres with everything they had saved from their night in the church," DanChurchAid's representative reports.

The people rush up to them and ask for food, water and medicine. DanChurchAid's representative says that she and the priest were overwhelmed by the huge need for help and also by the fact that no help at all had yet been given to the people in distress.

Dead bodies are floating in the river

From the village of Pyagon, DanChurchAid's representative and the priest sailed into the delta where the extent of the disaster hits you in the eye. So far no help has reached the part of the delta south of the former capital Rangoon.

"It was extremely shocking. People in the delta are poor to begin with. They have lived in plain shacks which are now destroyed. Only buildings made from bricks or wood are left," she says.

After 30 minutes they see the first dead animal in the water - a swollen buffalo - shortly after the first dead human being appears.

"It was a man. His arms were spread as if he had tried to hold on to something before he died."

The stench of the swollen and tainted corpses is insufferable.

" During the three hours we sailed in the delta, I saw around 30 bodies. Including children," a very shocked DanChurchAid's representative says and adds that she also saw two mass burials.

Amazingly enough life continues in the middle of all the destructions.

"Just next to the corpses women are standing, washing clothes in the river and fetching water which they use for cooking. It won't be long before other illnesses than diarrhoea will appear," DanChurchAid's representative says. The fear of cholera and other waterborne diseases is great, she says.

DKK 750,000 for food

The survivors in the delta which DanChurchAid's representative met have themselves begun rebuilding their shacks of bamboo and rush with what they can find. Everybody is helping each other and share the food they have.

In the three villages visited by DanChurchAid's representative, people survive on the seed grain which was meant to be planted in the near future. In several places you see wet grains of rice spread out on the ground to dry. They mix the seed grain with water and eat it. The wells are polluted by seawater so for the time being they survive by drinking the juice from coconuts.

"People were very happy to see us but at the same time also very shy. They do not show their feelings. They seem like extremely tough people who are used to living a very hard life," DanChurchAid's representative says.

DanChurchAid has two employees in Burma, who work hard with the local partners in order to organize help to as many as possible. They need everything: Food, water, medicine, and help to rebuild. Later they will also need new seed grain and to have their fields cleared of seawater. Provisionally, DanChurchAid has earmarked DKK 750,000 for food to be flown into Burma as soon as they receive the necessary permissions.