Deaths in Myanmar push Southeast Asia’s toll from Typhoon Yagi past 500
Floods and landslides in Myanmar triggered by last week’s Typhoon Yagi and seasonal monsoon rains have claimed at least 226 lives, with 77 people missing, state-run media reported Tuesday. The new figures push the total number of dead in Southeast Asia from Yagi well past 500.
The accounting of casualties has been slow, in part due to communication difficulties with the affected areas. Myanmar is racked by a civil war that began in 2021 after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Independent analysts believe the ruling military controls much less than half of the country’s territory.
Before arriving in Myanmar, also known as Burma, Typhoon Yagi killed almost 300 people in Vietnam, 42 in Thailand and four in Laos, according to the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance. It said 21 people were killed in the Philippines, with 26 others missing.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that an estimated 631,000 people may have been affected by flooding across Myanmar. There were already 3.4 million displaced people at the beginning of September, according to the United Nations refugee agency, mostly because of war and unrest in recent years.
Nearly 200 people have died in Vietnam in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi and 128 are missing as flash floods and landslides take their toll.
Heavy rains from the typhoon and the seasonal monsoon brought widespread flash floods to Myanmar, especially the central regions of Mandalay, Magway, Bago and the Irrawaddy River Delta; the eastern states Shan, Kayah, Kayin and Mon; and the country’s capital, Naypyidaw.
Some flooded areas have started to see water levels recede, but others in the Shan and Kayah states remain critical.
More than 160,000 houses have been damaged and 438 temporary relief camps have been opened for more than 160,000 flood victims, Myanma Alinn reported. The military government announced that nearly 240,000 people have been displaced.
Myanma Alinn said 117 government offices and buildings, 1,040 schools, 386 religious buildings, roads, bridges, power towers, and telecom towers were damaged in 56 townships.
The strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since 1949 has flooded roads with water and broken tree branches and knocked out power to some homes.
It also said nearly 130,000 animals were killed and more than 640,000 acres of agricultural land were damaged by the floods.
The U.N.’s humanitarian affairs agency said food, drinking water, medicine, clothes, dignity kits and shelters are urgent needs for the flood victims but alleviation efforts are hampered by blocked roads, damaged bridges and ongoing armed clashes.
Vice Senior Gen. Soe Win, the second-ranking member of Myanmar’s ruling military council, said the country had received relief aid from other countries, and some humanitarian assistance from the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, will arrive soon.
Soe Win, speaking at a meeting of the National Disaster Management Committee on Monday, said that the extent of flooding in the capital was unprecedented, and cleaning and rehabilitation activities in the flooded areas began Thursday as the water level declined.
Myanmar experiences extreme weather during the monsoon season virtually every year. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 people around the Irrawaddy River Delta. The military government at the time was harshly discredited when it delayed acceptance of outside aid.
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