Myanmar Cyclone Disaster, How You Can Help?

The Lincy Foundation of Los Angeles provided initial disaster funds to Operation USA for just such contingencies requiring an immediate response. The Audrey & Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation also contributed substantial funding for this effort. A Myanmar cyclone fund raising t-shirt was created by Von Dutch (www.vondutch.com) to raise funds as well.

HOW TO HELP:

To assist Operation USA in delivering aid to Myanmar, donate online at www.opusa.org, by phone at 800.678.7255 or, by check to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave., Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232. Ninety-eight cents of every dollar is spent directly on relief programs.

Corporate contributions of essential products in bulk and with at least one year's remaining shelf life can be arranged by calling Neil Frame, Operation USA, 310.838.3455.

Media Contact: Christine Oppenheim or Richard Walden 310.838.3455 coppenheim@opusa.org



LOS ANGELES (May 8, 2008) Los Angeles based Operation USA has deployed staff already stationed in Asia to assess the needs of what is now an estimated 7 million people affected by the recent cyclone which destroyed or devastated wide swaths of Burma (aka Myanmar), especially in or near Yangon (formerly the capital Rangoon) and throughout its vast rice growing delta. The cyclone generated winds of over 120 miles per hour and struck communities living largely in housing made of bamboo and unable to withstand winds of such magnitude.

OPERATION U.S.A., Who Are They?

Myanmar Cyclone Disaster Gets Worse As Red Cross Relief Boat Sinks

Yangon, Myanmar---A Red Cross boat carrying rice and drinking water for cyclone victims sank Sunday, while the death toll jumped to more than 28,000 and aid groups warned of a humanitarian catastrophe. The sinking was the latest setback for distribution of aid following Cyclone Nargis. Though international aid has started to trickle in, almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation. The junta says it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own. The boat was making the 12-hour journey from Yangon to Mawlamyinegyun when...

it hit a submerged tree trunk and began taking water near Bogalay town, which was extensively damaged by the cyclone, the IFRC said.

The boat was carrying 100 bags of rice, drinking water, water purification tablets, and other goods. Some relief items were saved and will be transported by foot or bicycle to the nearest town to await onward shipment, it said.

The International Federation's disaster manager in Yangon, Michael Annear, described the sinking as "a big blow."

"Apart from the delay in getting aid to people we may now have to re-evaluate how we transport that aid," he said.

Also Sunday, Myanmar's state television said that the cyclone's death toll has gone up by about 5,000 to 28,458. The number of missing was reduced to 33,416. International aid groups, however, say that the death toll could eventually top 100,000 as humanitarian conditions worsen.

British aid group Oxfam said Sunday that the death toll could multiply by up to 15 times, or rise to 1.5 million, if people do not get clean water and sanitation soon, which could result in a medical catastrophe.

"It's really crucial that people get access to clean water sources and sanitation to avoid unnecessary deaths and suffering," Oxfam regional chief Sarah Ireland told reporters in Bangkok, Thailand.

To read more about the disaster and their airport that can only handle 4 relief flights a day go to MYANMAR.

ALMOST 500,000 DEAD IN MYANMAR AND NO AID IN SIGHT???

Last week's cyclone in Myanmar is expected to leave 100,000 dead in it's wake and could go as high as half-million. Now comes word that the U.N. is suspending aid supplies after the military government seized the food and equipment it had already sent into the country.

The top of a small temple sticking out of a flooded field near Yangon, the main city in Myanmar.

In the statement, the government said it would distribute international relief supplies itself. Myanmar said it had turned back one relief flight because, in addition to disaster relief supplies, it carried disaster assessment experts and an unauthorized media group.

"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment," the statement, from the Foreign Ministry, said. “But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources."

The first of two major international aid shipments arrived Thursday by aircraft from the United Nations World Food Program, carrying high energy biscuits, water containers, food and plastic sheets.

But two of four United Nations experts who flew in on Friday were turned back at the airport for unknown reasons, said John Holmes, a relief coordinator for the United Nations.

Altogether, by one count, 11 chartered planes with relief supplies have landed in Myanmar, a tiny amount for a disaster that the United Nations said has affected 1.5 million people.

By the government’s official count, 22,500 people have died, but Shari Villarosa, the top American diplomat in Myanmar, said the number could reach 100,000 if help was not prompt and the humanitarian situation worsened.

One United Nations official said he had never seen delays like this before in delivering relief supplies and aid officials. In Indonesia after the tsunami in 2004, he said, an air bridge of daily flights was established within 48 hours.

"The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts," said the official, Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, in Bangkok. "It’s astonishing."

He said his agency alone had submitted 10 visa applications for relief workers but that none had been approved before consulates shut down for the weekend.

"We strongly urge the government of Myanmar to process these visa applications as quickly as possible, including working over the weekend," he said.
In New York, United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors.

In Geneva on Friday, a United Nations spokeswoman said the United Nations was putting together an urgent appeal for funding that would cover its relief efforts in Myanmar over the next six months.[NY Times]