It said at least 351 people were killed by Tropical Cyclone Nargis, including 162 who lived on Haing Gyi island
off the country’s southwest coast. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
Seventy-five percent of the buildings in the Irrawaddy’s Labutta township had collapsed, it said.
«The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard, not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm
surge,» said Chris Kaye, the U.N.’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon.
The meteorological bureau had forecast the cyclone would cause tides to rise as much as 3.7 meters (12 feet) above
normal levels, although no details of the actual rise were available Sunday.
Kaye said the government told him earlier in the day that thousands of homes were destroyed.
The U.N. tried to send teams to assess the damage on Sunday, but their efforts were hampered by roads clogged
with debris and phone lines that were down. They would try again Monday, Kaye said.
He said he didn’t know any more because communications had been so spotty since the storm.
