By IRNA,
Kuala Lumpur : The Myanmar government put its tally of deaths since Cyclone Nargis struck early Saturday at 22,500 and said 41,000 people were missing.
Such early estimates often prove inaccurate, and the wide path of this cyclone, which destroyed homes across the fertile Irrawaddy Delta and into Yangon, the nation’s main city, left a large area of destruction, complicating rescue efforts and damage assessments for days or weeks to come.
While Myanmar, formerly Burma, has so far accepted only a trickle of aid, the country’s information minister, Kyaw Hsan, said Tuesday that the country would be seeking assistance “from at home and abroad.”
Maung Maung Swe, minister for relief and resettlement, said the cyclone’s deadliest aspect was the surge of water it forced inland from the Andaman Sea.
“More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself,” he said, in the first official description of the destruction.
“The wave was up to 12 feet high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages. They did not have anywhere to flee.”