A senior US diplomat in Myanmar said the death toll in cyclone that swept Myanmar's five divisions and states may exceed 100,000, according to media reports Thursday.

First UN relief after two days - 08 / 05 / 2008 12:53

A senior U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said the death toll in cyclone Nargis that swept Myanmar's five divisions and states may exceed 100,000, according to media reports Thursday.

"The information we are receiving indicates over 100,000 deaths," said Shari Villarosa, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Yangon, "I think most of the damage was caused by these 12-foot storm surges."

The death toll is about 23,000 according to the Myanmar state radio by Wednesday night, and the number of missing has risen to 42,119.

But Villarosa said 70,000 people are missing in the Irrawaddy Delta, which has a population of nearly 6 million people.

Villarosa said the U.S. figure is based on data from an international non-governmental organization, without naming the group.

"I can only assume that the longer the delay, the more victims that are created," she said.

A dead body (front) lying near a dead pig (background) in the debris left from Cyclone Nargis on an flooded field in Labutta

 Myanmar claims it issued cyclone forecast days before disaster

Myanmar's Department of Meteorology claimed Thursday to have issued warnings on the approach of Cyclone Nargis six days before the storm struck the country, killing tens of thousands of people, the World Meteorological Organization said.

"The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) of Myanmar started to issue forecasts on cyclone Nargis as of April 27," said a statement issued in Geneva by the WMO.

Tun Lwin, permanent-secretary of the Myanmar Meteorological Department, told the WMO it had issued forecasts of the cyclone as early as April 27 and had warned "authorities" as of April 29th.

"A press briefing was given to national media on 1 May and newspaper headlines on 2 May, the day of the landfall, focused on the cyclone," said the WMO.

Yangon residents confirmed that cyclone warnings had appeared in local newspapers three days before the event, but it is questionable whether many of the victims in rural Myanmar had access to the news.

Myanmar's ruling junta has been heavily criticized, notably by US first lady Laura Bush among others, for failing to issue proper warnings to its people about the impending threat of the cyclone, which was packing 200-kilometres-per-hour winds when it first hit Myanmar's central coastline on May 2.

The WMO noted that Myanmar's meteorological department, which had recently benefited from and upgrading of its Global Telecommunications System, had received accurate information on the cyclone from the WMO regional centre in New Delhi.

The cyclone has devastated the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta region, the country's densely-populated rice bowl. The government has placed the death toll at close to 23,000 with another 42,000 missing.

"Nargis was the first tropical cyclone making landfall in Myanmar for 40 years," noted the WMO.

"Such a rare hazard shows the need for a multi-hazard approach to early warnings systems."

First UN relief flight lands in Myanmar after 2 day delay

The U.N.'s World Food Program says one of its planes has landed in Myanmar as part of the first major international airlift of aid to cyclone victims.

A U.N. official says one plane from Italy arrived in Myanmar, and three more will land later Thursday.

She said the planes will bring key relief items including high-energy biscuits and medical kits.

The official requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

The planes had waited on the tarmac for the last two days to get the junta's clearance to bring in relief supplies to the devastated Southeast Asian country.