A Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Survivor's Story
At 4.30 pm on 2nd May the villagers, who had received some early warning of the storm, began to feel very strong winds and rain lashing down on them so heavily that it was painful. By 6pm there was debris, mostly parts of people’s houses, flying around the village.
By 8pm our survivor and her family realised they couldn’t stay in their house so they moved to a neighbour’s home. Eventually five families tried to shelter in a small rice storage building, which was normally a five minute walk from their house – on 2nd May it took them 90 minutes to reach it. Tragically, our survivor’s six year old brother was lost in the storm. At one point, she herself was submerged by the tide, but was rescued by a man who dived into the water and saved her. Although he was a local, they did not know each other.
Eventually the water started to recede at 2.30 am and people then started to cluster in groups. Normally this is an extremely isolated area but as a result of the storm and widespread flooding the area became completely cut off and impassable for several days. The survivors ate whatever food they could find, mostly very small quantities of rice which had been washed out of the storage building and lay in the mud. Fortunately, because heavy rain continued during the cyclone, survivors could cup their hands and drink, which considerably reduced the threat of diseases like cholera.
It was at this point in our survivor’s story she stopped for a while and broke into tears. But, she wanted to continue, and went on to explain that after four or five days, other villagers came in search of the people from Set San, including many richer people from Yangon, who managed to get to them by boat, bringing with them small amounts of food.
Our survivor is now working with DEC Member, CARE International UK, helping other people in her village.
