Burma's cyclone death toll soars

**4me2** · 6th May 2008

Burma's cyclone death toll soars

Burma's capital Rangoon is one of the areas worst-affected by the cyclone

The death toll from Burma's devastating cyclone has now risen to more than 22,000, state media say.
Some 41,000 people were also missing, three days after Cyclone Nargis hit the country on Saturday, state radio said.
The announcement came as international aid agencies pushed to launch a massive operation in the worst-affected areas of the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people are said to be without clean water and shelter, with some areas still cut off.

New video shows the force of the cyclone which ripped through Burma

State media reported on Tuesday that 22,464 people had now been confirmed as dead.
Earlier, Burmese officials said that up to 15,000 people had died.
More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the cyclone itself, Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told reporters in Rangoon.
"The wave was up to 12ft (3.5m) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," he said. "They did not have anywhere to flee."
Some 95% of the homes in the city of Bogalay in the Irrawaddy river delta were destroyed, he added.

Eyewitness: After the cyclone
Crucial test for junta

Burma's military leaders have said they will accept external help, in a move that correspondents say could reflect the scale of the disaster. The military junta has said it will postpone to 24 May a referendum on a new constitution in areas worst-hit by the cyclone - including the former capital Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta, state television said on Tuesday. But it said that the vote initially planned for 10 May would proceed as planned in the rest of the country

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/7385662.stm