UNITED NATIONS RESPONDS TO MYANMAR STORM

NEW YORK, 28 May (OCHA) -- United Nations agencies in Myanmar are providing immediate assistance to people affected by the recent storm that hit four villages in Myanmar.  The storm was the worst since 1968.

With winds of over 160 kilometres per hour, the storm hit the Bay of Bengal on 19 May and crossed the south-west coast in Myanmar near the border with Bangladesh.  It also caused tidal surges and flooding in the four towns of Pauktaw, Myebon, Sittway and Kyaukpyu in RakhineState.

The storm caused significant loss of life and extensive damage to the infrastructure in the four towns.  One hundred-forty are reported dead, seven are missing and about 18,000 people were affected and are temporarily homeless.

Over 1,000 houses were destroyed and 960 damaged, as were hospital and health centres.  Many schools, the majority of them primary schools, were damaged or destroyed.  Shortages of food and clean water are reported.  Water sources were damaged by floodwaters, and communications and electricity supply have stopped.

The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, which will coordinate the relief efforts and will distribute relief items, is currently assessing the damage and needs in the affected area in cooperation with the United Nations country team.  The Government has requested the United Nations Country Team in the capital, Yangon, to provide relief items worth $220,000, including rice, tarpaulins, medical supplies, rain water collection tanks, clothes and blankets for 18,000 people.

The immediate assistance provided by United Nations agencies amounts to $175,000.  The World Food Programme (WFP) provided rice for 3,700 affected families and food for work for a period of three months.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released $25,000 for relief items.  The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided supplies items worth $50,000, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provided medicines for dysentery and cholera, corrugated sheets for roofing of schools and other goods.  The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released a cash grant of $50,000 from its emergency resources.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA New York, tel.: 917 367 5126, mobile: 917 892 1679; or Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.:  41 22 917 2653, mobile: 41(0) 79 473 4570.

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