YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s official media said today that 10,000 people were killed by a powerful cyclone in just one town, confirming fears of a spiraling death toll from the storm’s 12-foot tidal surges and high winds that swept away bamboo homes in low-lying coastal regions.
The ruling junta, an authoritarian regime that cut the nation off from the international community for decades, appealed for foreign aid to help in the recovery from Saturday’s disaster, the country’s deadliest storm on record.
The casualty count has been rising quickly as authorities reach hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the country’s major rice-producing region, which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis’ 120-mph winds.
Myanmar Foreign Minister told diplomats in Yangon on Monday that more than 10,000 people may have died when Nargis made landfall on Saturday.
On Tuesday, state television confirmed fears of a rapidly rising toll, reporting that 10,000 perished in the town of Bogalay and raising concern that the country’s overall death toll will rise significantly.
Residents of Yangon, the former capital of 6.5 million, said they were angry the government failed to adequately warn them of the approaching storm and has so far done little to alleviate their plight.
“The government misled people. They could have warned us about the severity of the coming cyclone so we could be better prepared,” said Thin Thin, a grocery store owner.
Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided, while leaving residents, including Buddhist monks, to cope on their own against the huge tangles of uprooted trees.
“There are some army trucks out to clear the roads, but most of the work was done with a dah (knife) by the people. Some of these tree trunks are 4-feet thick,” said Barry Broman, a retired U.S. State Department officer who was in Yangon when the cyclone struck. “Thousands of trees were uprooted. All the roads were blocked by the trees.”
The death toll would be the highest from a natural disaster in southeast Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which killed 229,866 people as it devastated coastlines in Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of southeast and south Asia. In the wake of the tsunami, an extensive early warning system was established in the Pacific region.
On Monday, prior to today’s state media confirmation of 10,000 dead in just one town, Myanmar state radio said 3,939 people perished as high winds and huge storm surges battered coastal areas, with another 2,879 people reported missing in Bogalay, 60 miles south of Yangon.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win told Yangon-based diplomats the death toll could rise to more than 10,000 in the region, which sits barely above sea level, according to Asian diplomats who attended the meeting.
Hundreds of thousands were left homeless and without clean drinking water, said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The diplomats said they were told Myanmar, also known as Burma, welcomed international humanitarian aid, including urgently needed roofing materials, medicine, water purifying tablets and mosquito nets. The first 10-ton shipment was scheduled to arrive from Thailand today.
The appeal for outside assistance was unusual for Myanmar’s ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of international organizations and closely controlled their activities. Several agencies, including the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, have limited their presence as a consequence.
Allowing any major influx of foreigners could carry risks for the military, injecting unwanted outside influence and giving the aid providers rather than the junta credit for a recovery.
However, keeping out international aid would focus blame squarely on the military should it fail to restore peoples’ livelihoods.
Although relief talks with the government were still ongoing, the U.N.’s Horsey said it appeared the U.N. had the “green light” to send in a team to assess the storm’s damage as early as today, and would pull out all the stops to send in food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
The government has given no explanation for the high death toll, but most people in the worst-hit region live in fragile bamboo homes with thatch or zinc roofs, which would have been swept way with their inhabitants by the onrushing tidal surge.
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