Bogalay(Myanmar): The 68-year-old fisherman tries to explain how a cyclone swept away the rest of his family, but he can utter only a few simple words before he is overcome by tears and trauma.

"All my 28 family members have died. I am the only survivor," said Thein Myint, whose flimsy village house was torn apart by cyclone-spurred waves surging from the sea.

Thein Myint's village is in a devastated belt around Bogalay, one of the worst-hit towns in the Irrawaddy delta some 32 kilometers from the Indian Ocean. Thousands have died here.

Other survivors -- from similar extended families still common in rural Myanmar -- are now fighting hunger, illness and wrenching loneliness.

"We huddled together, but the big trees carried by the waves knocked down two of my children and my wife," said Htay Maung, 70, recounting a common story at a large Buddhist monastery where many others had taken shelter.

When the winds -- reaching speeds of up to 190 kph -- first sprang up, and the tidal wave rose higher, he, his life an four children climbed to the roof of their house and clung to each other.

"Only two of my children survived," he said, speaking among crying children, moaning adults and others complaining that authorities and only distributed sodden, fermented rice.

"We knew that the storm was coming, but we didn t know how dangerous or deadly it will be, so as usual I told the children to stay indoors," said one of the men sheltered in open-sided sheds in the large monastery compound.

"We heard of the storm warning around 1 pm and the cyclone came five hours later," adds another.
Source : PTI