nargis report

8/14/2019 Nargis Report

1/5

Report on Nargis Cyclone in Myanmar

By- S.K

The Nargis Cyclone hit five major places in Myanmar on May 2 nd and 3rd. Those

places are Yangon Division, Irrawaddy Division, Pegu Division, Mon Division, andKaren State. Irrawaddy division, which is situated in delta was the worst place. Then,

Yangon, which is near by sea, was hit badly also. Even old people in Yangon said that

theyd never seen andexperienced this kind of chaos

whole of their lives.

The storm started at

23:00hrs on May 2nd, and itfinished the next morning at

11:30hrs on May 3rd. During

those 14 hours, the storm really

consumed families, children,wives, husbands, animals,

houses, buildings and many,many other things. Very sadly,

on the 11th of May was

Mothers Day and a weekbefore that day, many children

lost their mums and many

mums lost their children. What

A sad story! Therefore, thatMothers Day was dry in most of churches especially from Irrawaddy division.

Many houses in Yangon downtown and suburb areas were damaged and roofswere blown out by the Cyclone. Many houses of believers and roofs of their houses andapartment buildings were damaged. Our Bible College, (South East Asia Bible College)

was safe in the storm, except some parts of roofs were blown and some window glasses

were broken. Almost 90% of trees in Yangon fell down mostly on the streets and manyelectrical posts were broken and fell down. Transportation had been paralyzed about for

four days even in

downtown Yangon. Since

we did not get electricitythen we could not get

water from the pipe line.

Though theCyclone stopped blowing,

its been raining

continuously and many

Yangon Downtown, After the Cyclone on May 3rd, 2008

Yangon Downtown, two ladies carrying a bag of charcoal


2/5

people moved to houses of their friends and relatives. Many of them moved to the

refugee camps. Some of them

(including believers and us from assemblies) borrowed money and replaced new roofsand rebuilt their

damaged houses, but

most of them couldnot rebuild or repair

their houses and

roofs. (including myChurch members)

After the

Cyclone, on the

evening of May 3, price of everything

get started increasing

up to three or four

times. Many people inYangon (including

believers fromassemblies) could not buy enough food,

clean water, candles, charcoal, etc. Believers from assemblies are helping each other as

much as we can, but its not sufficient. There are two kinds of business men during these

tragedy days (even now). Many business men think that this is an opportunity to makemore money by increasing the prices and they increase the prices of everything and sell.

Very few business men think in a different way that this is an opportunity to help the

Cyclone victims who are in dire need of foods and other necessary things. Then they sellthings with the same price before the Cyclone and they also help the victims by giving

necessary things freely.

By Gods grace, the Cyclone-affected believers especially from Churches orassemblies in Myanmar have been helped by brothers and sisters in Christ from near and

there. Some believers have replaced new roofs and rebuilt their houses. Some of them

also get clean waters now. But still cannot afford to buy enough foods and necessarythings.

I now want to give a brief report from my trip on the situation of the Cyclone

victims especially in Bogale town and its region. I went there sent four men (believers)

to observe and help the Cyclonevictims especially in Bogale

township from May 17 19,

2008. As my Church membersprayed for my safety, the Lord

has brought me back to Yangon

on the of May 19, 2008. Icollected of this report is as

follows.

I started leaving for

Bogale from Yangon

A Chapel destroyed by the Cyclone (May 3rd, 2008)


3/5

On May 17, 2008 at 9:00a.m by A

truck and I saw uncountable Cyclone victims standing by the roadside asking foods to fill

their empty stomach. I safely arrived in Bogale at 2:30p.m and I stayed there that night.When I looked around Bogale town, I found out that about 50% of houses and building

were fallen and damaged and 100% of roofs were blown out by the Cyclone. I continued

my journey the next morning (May 18) at 6:00am to Setsuh village by a boat. After thirtyminutes of traveling, I started seeing uncountable dead bodies of men, women, and

children on the water and along the beach. It is said that 70% of the dead are ladies and

children I also saw so many rotten bodies of buffalos, cows, and pigs spread out on thewater. And I saw that 100% of houses of villages located between Bogale and Setsuh

village were totally destroyed and so many villages were disappeared.

After

three hours oftraveling by

boat from

Bogale, I safely

arrived at Setsuhvillage. I had a

privilege ofmeeting with

some villagers

there and are

informed by avillager that out

of

1000 villagers, 400 people are missing. A woman who is about 30 years old came andtold me that there were 9 people (including her) in her family, but now she alone is left

and alive. The other eight family members are missing. And 99% of houses in the village

were totally damaged. Package of rice, noodles blankets, etc, for the refugees werecontributed but most of the villagers who live a block from the bank of the sea do not get

them. There are about 20 movable tents were settled for the Cyclone victims. Those

victims are fed only rice-soup and Mama noodles which are insufficient.Then I continued

my journey again from

Setsuh village to Dawngh-

gyi village and I safelyarrived there at 4:00 p.m.

There is a Karen Baptist

Church in that village andabout 95 families in that

church, and about 15

families who are nonChristians. I had a privilege

of attending the Youth

Group service at that

Some Cyclone victims asking and waiting for food

After Cyclone at a village in Bogale Township

After the Nargis Cyclone in Bogale Town


4/5

Church starting from 4:30p.m. I sang a special number and preached short messages of

encouragement for those broken-hearted people. I gave them some medicines, packages

of Oral Rehy- salt, etc. through their church pastor, and I pray for them that the Lordscontinuous providence, health, and safety. The wife of the pastor shared the goodness of

God that very few people/pastors whom we invited only reached us before the Cyclone

severely hit our village, but now you are visiting us and helping us without our invitation.Our God is good, she testifies.

Their church building was totally destroyed by the Cyclone and they have

meeting at a tent whichthey temporarily built by

themselves. There is a

private Middle School

building and it was totallydamaged. When the

Cyclone hit the village the

school building fell down

and three villagers whotook refuge in the building

were killed. There are onlytwo houses remain but the

roofs were blown off.

People who took

refuge in their barns weresafe from the Cyclone. Salty water from the sea came into the burn and all rice (seeds)

get wed and damaged. So the

villagers do not have rice andseed for the next harvest. As the

village is located in a long

distance from Bogale, few peoplecould reach there. They lived

without food for two days after

the Cyclone. On the third day,each family got a package of

noodle and some rice(about 5

lbs) which was not enough even

for one day. These villagers donot want to move to the Refugee

camps because they are afraid

that they may not be allowed togo back to their own village but send them to a different place to live for good.

A lot of rotten bodies from other villages were spreading out near by their village

and they collected those dead bodies and tied together and through into the sea becausethe smell was so strong and it can cause some deceases. Because of the flood, all rice

fields are under the salty water. The experts said that those fields can produce no more

rice at all because of the salty soil. Actually, the Irrawaddy Division (Delta area) is

Struggling for daily living by fishing

A rotten body of a man (picture taken on May 19)


5/5

usually called the barns of the land of Myanmar. But now the situation of Irrawaddy

has been dramatically changed and the future of this area will be another story.

Moreover, 99% of their buffalos, cows, and pigs died under the water. So, thefarmers do not have buffalos though they want to plough the field this monsoon season.

A man from the village

has a small plough-machine but he cannot

afford to buy the gas. I

returned from Dawngh-gyi village on May 19th,

6:30a.m and safely

arrived back to Yangon

at the evening 9:00p.m.

Prayer Requests:

- Please pray for the Cyclone victims that they may get enough food and someother necessary things.

- Pray for the reconstruction that the Lord will provide necessary things to the

victims including believers to rebuild houses and school buildings, churchbuildings, etc.

- Pray that the victims will see the goodness and love of God through the helping

hands of Gods people.

Thank you so much for all your prayers for the people of Myanmar especially who are

suffering from natural disasters- the Nargis Cyclone.

The Church building was totally destroyed by the Cyclone and they now

are having worship service at a temporal tent they made.

nargis report

Documents