Wild Weather: Another Huge Storm heading for Burma
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wild Weather: Another Huge Storm heading for Burma*
From correspondents in Bangkok
May 09, 2008 06:56pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
THE United Nations today warned another huge storm was headed in the
direction of Burma, which could complicate the slow-moving relief
efforts from deadly Cyclone Nargis.
An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless by the disaster,
which has killed tens of thousands, and the storm could pose serious
risks to those battling disease, said Richard Horsey, a UN relief spokesman.
"Our meteorological people tell us there's likely to be fairly strong
rainfall in the next seven days,'' he said.
"That's going to be a big issue with unpaved roads. Heavy rainfall could
complicate things for all those people going without shelter,'' Horsey said.
"If there's an epidemic of water-borne disease and a lack of shelter
when a storm comes in ... if we have another storm coming into the
delta, that's going to be a significant concern for all those people
without shelter.''
The country's military, which has run Burma with an iron fist for almost
half a century, said earlier that it welcomed shipments of supplies but
was "not ready'' to let in foreign aid workers, including disaster experts.
"If we don't get this relief effort up to full scale quickly, there's
significant risk of a second round of this disaster which could
potentially kill as many people as the initial cyclone,'' Mr Horsey said.