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After the cyclone in Myanmar

May 16, 2008, 4:40PM MT

By Elizabeth Doyle

People and animals struggle

By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network

Our thoughts and prayers go out for the people and animals of Myanmar in the wake of the devastating cyclone on May 3, that, it is now believed, may have killed up to 100,000 people and countless animals.

At least one million people and a great many animals have been left in desperate need of food and aid.

Best Friends is in contact with other international animal organizations, and we are working together to find a way to help the animals in this situation.

As you know, most of the aid organizations who are ready to help people in the afflicted area have not been allowed to enter the country. It is hoped that that will soon change.

An Agence France-Presse report today, from Labutta, Myanmar, published on ABS-CBN News Online, reports that Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy river delta with water more than twenty feet high, covering Labutta, a city made up of villages where 90,000 people lived, and sweeping over the treetops. There is still widespread flooding in the region, extending over large areas of the countryside.

Survivors from surrounding areas have been pouring into the city,
where is very little food and no clean drinking water. Residents of Labutta are sharing small amounts of wild rice with refugees. Coconuts, when they can be found, provide coconut water and something to eat.

Located in the far south of the country, where land juts out into the Bay of Bengal, Labutta is a little over one hundred miles from the capital city, Yangon, which has also been severely affected.

We will report any further news or developments in the effort to help the animals in Myanmar as soon as it is available.

Photo: © Brownm 39 / Dreamstime.com / goatherd with goats in Myanmar, prior to the cyclone

To read the latest Agence France-Press report, please go to

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/May/theworld_May272.xml&section=theworld&col

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