Desperate Myanmar Survivors Throwing Bodies in Rivers

[babylonsister]

Myanmar cyclone survivors desperate for aid


YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Bodies are being thrown into rivers by Myanmar cyclone survivors in desperate need of help.


People travel on a small motor boat past a destroyed pier in the port of Yangon, Myanmar.


The government-run radio station said Tuesday that 22,464 are confirmed dead and 41,000 are missing, and the United Nations says that up to 1 million could be homeless.

CNN's Dan Rivers is the first Western journalist to reach Bogalay township, where China's state-run Xinhua news agency says 10,000 died. He reported miserable conditions.

Rivers said that bodies were being dropped into rivers and that survivors had only small amounts of eggs and rice. The area's rice mills are destroyed, leaving Bogalay with a five-day supply. Water pumps were also ruined, and fuel was scarce.

He reported destroyed homes along 30-kilometer stretches. In one area, only four homes remained from a total of 369. People were taking shelter under canvas sheets, and the weather remained awful.

One woman described to the Democratic Voice of Burma -- a broadcast media group run by opposition expatriates -- a wall of water jumping from the Gulf of Mottama into the delta areas.

CNN obtained the video in which the survivor said she walked a trail dotted by dead bodies to get to safety, passing a group of about 1,000 homeless people who slept on the street.

"Yes, there is tide coming along. Trees fall over people," the survivor said. "There are many dead bodies lying under trees. Yes, all people I saw are crying too much and searching for bodies of loved ones. There is bad smell from dead bodies on the way we came from."


more...

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/06/myanmar.cyclone/index.html

[Jane Austin]

1. I don't understand.

Why does throwing bodies in rivers help anything?

Thanks.

[babylonsister]

2. They have no where to put them, is my guess, because there are

so many. :(

[Uncle Joe]

3. I imagine the smell and these people are just thinking of their immediate surroundings

with little food, and so many dead people, they don't have the caloric energy to bury them, so the river becomes the most convenient way of getting rid of the dead by carrying them down stream.

[Warpy]

6. They float downstream

to the ocean, eventually. Burial is out of the question in saturated ground with a high water table, there are no refrigerated slabs in morgues, and the usual cremation of so many bodies with sodden timber is impractical. In addition, the climate is tropical, so decomposition happens at great speed.

What would you do?

[Jane Austin]

13. That's what I thought it meant, but the article seemed

to imply that everyone would automatically know, and I thought maybe there was something I was missing.

[Solly Mack]

4. :(

[lonestarnot]

5. What a horribly sad state of affairs.

:cry:

[Lex]

7. After a huge hurricane hit Galveston, TX in the early 1900's, they

took boatloads of bodies out to sea to dispose of them.

They washed back up to shore.

[babylonsister]

8. Yes, I remember that book. I think they finally wound up

cremating the remains that washed up if memory serves.

[brer cat]

9. I ache for their desperation

and hopelessness. Brings back all the Katrina memories.

My heart goes out to them.

[qanda]

10. I'm not sure why this makes me think of Katrina

I know Katrina wasn't as bad as this but the desperation seems the same. I guess this is what Katrina would have looked like if there were no advance warning system in place.

[babylonsister]

11. You're not alone. The numbers are different, but the desperation

is the same.

[malaise]

12. Sounds like a tidal wave

What a tragedy

[TheMadMonk]

14. It's called storm surge.

In part the low pressure in the eye of the storm raises water levels there, also the cyclonic winds push water ahead of them, and if landfall coincides with high tide matters are even worse.

[malaise]

15. I know

We have storm surges here with hurricanes but that sounds massive

[roguevalley]

16. what a horror show. poor countries seem to take a lot of abuse.

[malaise]

17. People must have notice when these storms are coming

Another gross failure by a lousy government

[sandyd921]

18. Horrific!

Just made a donation to a charity providing relief. Hope lots of others will too.

[uppityperson]

19. k&r, maps of density of population, depth of water. Crap crap crap.

[otherlander]

20. Why must everything suck so much?

[Quantess]

21. 41,000 missing, and many will never be found....

as the bodies get washed out to sea.

[lastliberalintexas]

22. For those who are able, please try to donate to

Doctors without Borders or another aid group you trust. Right now no one even knows if the Burmese government is going to allow foreign aid workers in. :(