Severe Tornado hit Ayeyarwady Delta

Dear Dr.Lun Swe,

Severe Tornado hit Kyein Chaung Gyi Village (Kyein Chaung Gyi Village Tract, Amar Sub-Urban, Pyar Pone Township), yesterday (14th July 2009) afternoon around 3:30 PM to 3:40 PM, it only lasted for a little over 10 minutes, but the damage is considerable, however that village is what local are called FOR SHOW village of Myanmar Govt., as many may have recalled and noticed that this was the same village they always show in MRTV, they have built 2 rows of model houses on the river bank and claimed as donated to poor families, but now turned out to be most of the house are (fortunately) vacant, and all those houses are destroyed by Tornado yesterday.

Damages are

- 34 Shelters destroyed (Govt. for show houses)
- 13 families living in 21 houses (65 people who are village admin committie (ya ya ka), USDAs and relatives families.)
- 21 houses are vacant (fortunately)
- Half of the meeting hall (for Govt. officials to make press shows and briefing) destroyed
- 6 people injured, and no casualty reported
- One monastery called "Than Ma Ni Ta Yar" (hundred steel irons) has been lightly damaged as well
- One individual shelter (occupied by Primary School Teacher) was totally destroyed.

Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) is already responding to the emergency, however since the village is totally controlled by Govt., other INGOs who doesn't have permissions to work in that area may not be able to help in this situation. Many agencies in Bogale and Pyapone area are frustrated with the Govt. ignorances and arrogant policies.

The same restriction has also set for last week Phar khant/ Lone Khin (flood and Land Slide) accident, eventhough many agencies want to respond Govt. not allow them to go there, and many people are suffering.

Thanks,
Maung Maung
(ေပးစာအျဖစ္သာ ေဖာ္ျပျခင္း ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ သတင္းႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ အတည္ျပဳခ်က္ ရယူထားျခင္းမရွိပါ။)