Myanmar flash floods kill more than 100—official

YANGON—More than 100 people were killed in flash floods caused by heavy storms in central Myanmar this week, an official in the military-dominated country said on Sunday.

“So far, 35 dead bodies were found out of 106 missing people. The other 71 people are also believed to have been killed in the floods,” a government official who did not want to be named told AFP.

“We haven’t found their bodies yet and are still searching.”

He added that more than 2,000 houses were swept away by the mass of water that hit four towns in the Magway region on Thursday and Friday, and some 6,000 homes were still flooded.

The official put the estimated damage from the disaster at around $1.7 million.

More than 1,500 people had sought refuge in two shelters in the flood-hit town of Pakokku, he added.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper also mentioned the flood tragedy in its Sunday edition, but kept the toll to three dead and 80 missing.

Roads, bridges, monasteries and other buildings had been damaged by strong winds and heavy rains in the region but the waters had since receded, it added.

Local officials had started distributing relief aid to the flood victims, the paper said, including providing clean water “to avoid (an) outbreak of cholera.”

They were also “engaged in repair works for collapsed bridges and damaged roads,” the report said, adding that vehicular traffic in the affected areas had “returned to normal as floods subsided.”

A monk in Pakokku told AFP on Friday that the water level in a nearby river was believed to have risen to about three meters (10 feet) high after several days of torrential rain.

“Some people, animals, houses and a monastery were swept away when the water rose up,” he said at the time.

Another Pakokku resident, who did not want to give his name, told AFP on Sunday that locals had rallied “to donate water, food and clothes” to those affected by the flash floods.

“The water level is back to normal now,” he said. “Transportation is still difficult as the bridge was destroyed and most telephone lines are still down,” the man added.

Southeast Asia has been battered by particularly severe monsoon rains this year.

According to the United Nations, more than 750 people have been killed across Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines.

Thailand has been particularly severely hit, with more than 350 people dead and tens of thousands of families sheltering in evacuation centres.

Flood waters have also reached the northern outskirts of low-lying Bangkok and the capital is anxiously bracing for worse to come as the government said the country’s flood crisis could go on for up to six more weeks.