Volunteers rush to help Myanmar flood victims, toll surges

Volunteers rush to help Myanmar flood victims, toll surges | Daily Tribune

BAGO (AFP) — Volunteers rushed to areas inundated by floods in Myanmar on Sunday as the country’s death toll from the typhoon ‘Yagi’ deluge more than doubled and remote areas reported increasing numbers of dead and missing.

Floods and landslides have killed almost 350 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of typhoon “Yagi,” which hit the region last weekend, according to official figures.

One man told Agence France-Presse (AFP) how he had tried to rescue people with ropes, as floodwaters four meters high surged through the hill town of Kalaw in Shan state on 10 September.

“The current was very strong and even some buildings were destroyed,” he said, describing pieces of furniture being washed through the streets.

“I could see trapped families in the distance standing on the roofs of their houses,” said the man, who works for a local non-governmental group.

“I heard there were 40 bodies in the hospital,” he added.

A businesswoman in Yangon who runs a company in Kalaw told AFP her staff there had reported nearly 60 people had been killed in the town.

The junta has not specified how many of the 74 people it says have died from the floods were in Kalaw.

Around 30 kilometers away at the tourist hotspot of Inle Lake, flood levels on Saturday had risen to the second storey of houses built on stilts above the water, according to one man there helping to evacuate his family.

In some areas near the lake “whole villages have been submerged,” he told AFP on Sunday, asking to remain anonymous.

“The elders say this is the highest level of flooding they have seen,” he said.

Locals had “lost foods such as rice and salt,” he added.

“Now people are drinking rain water. There will be no water once that is gone.”

AFP images showed the flood waters high against the wooden houses on the lake.

‘We want to help anyone who needs help at the moment. That is why we arranged to go to the flooding area.’

Cars and trucks carrying volunteers were streaming north from commercial hub Yangon to reach affected areas in Taungoo in the Bago region and around the capital Naypyidaw, AFP reporters said.

The vehicles were loaded with palettes of bottled water, bundles of clothes and dried food, while some had boats strapped to their roofs.

“We want to help anyone who needs help at the moment. That is why we arranged to go to the flooding area,” said one woman heading for Taungoo.

“We brought food, water and some clothes.”