Myanmar’s cyclone survivors brace for new storm

KYAIKTAW, Myanmar — U Maung Saw and his family are in a race against the rain.

Cyclone Nargis pounded their house as flat as the mud where the broken pieces now lie. A 5-foot wave, driven by a storm surge that rolled 20 miles upriver from the Andaman Sea, crashed onto his doorstep. It washed away almost everything the family of seven owned —even the fish they were farming in a nearby pond.

The flooding and torrential rain May 3 also ruined a fifth of the unmilled rice they had stockpiled since harvesting the paddy from the rich soil of the Irrawaddy River delta in late March. A week after the storm, the rest of the rice is so damp that it has to be spread on the mucky ground to dry slowly in the sun before it rots, too.

And therein lies the problem: A nasty tropical depression is bearing down on southern Myanmar. And in villages like this, where no one has received outside aid, the clock is counting down to what threatens to be the next disaster.

Weak from the lack of adequate food and avoiding using a bad leg, Maung Saw, 58, isn’t waiting for help to arrive. With a hand from his sons, Maung Saw works from dawn until dusk, rebuilding their house from scratch, getting what strength he can from meals of boiled rice and white melon.

“The government never gives us anything,” Maung Saw said, laughing. “We’re not angry. We’re not surprised. We don’t expect anything else.”