Loss of lives and livelihoods: Myanmar residents pick up the pieces after Typhoon Yagi

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar: The people of Myanmar are picking up the pieces after Typhoon Yagi ravaged the country and left more than 200 people dead, according to official figures.
Local reports suggest that the death toll may be far higher than official estimates.
More than 70 people remain missing.
Yagi – Asia’s most powerful storm this year – swept across northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar more than a week ago with powerful winds and an enormous amount of rain, triggering floods and landslides.
While Myanmar is prone to extreme weather events, this is among the worst floods in the nation’s recent history, said the United Nations. Its low-lying capital Naypyidaw was almost completely submerged. 
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) disaster response agency said so far, an estimated 631,000 people have been affected by flooding across Myanmar.
State media reported more than 65,000 homes have been destroyed.
Relief and medical teams have been deployed across the country to help evacuate residents to higher and dryer ground. About 200 relief camps have also opened, housing more than 240,000 people displaced by the floods.
One resident in Naypyidaw’s Sin Thay village, Ms Ma Thu, said her family spent two days on the rooftop of their home. 
“We had nothing to eat. My children were hungry. My parents and children are now being treated by doctors,” she said. 
Her fellow villagers are also grieving the loss of loved ones amid the chaos. The last thing Mr Ye Thu remembers is seeing five of his family members fleeing on their cow cart.
“One of my aunts’ bodies was found. Another is missing but we are sure she is also dead,” he said. 
Many in regions heavily dependent on agriculture for income fear losing their livelihoods. According to official data, nearly 260,000ha of rice paddies and other crops have been destroyed by the floods.
“We lost not just clothes but everything else. We can still wash dirty clothes retrieved from the floods. But our paddy fields (and) our crops have all been washed away. There is no way to get them back,” said one resident from Kyidaung village.
Farmer Pyone Maung said that his paddy fields survived two previous floods, but not this time. “All of them were ruined. I’ve lost around 7 to 8 acres (2 to 3ha) of the fields to the floods already,” he said.
Communication is a key challenge for humanitarian organisations trying to help communities, said Nadia Khoury, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) head of delegation in Myanmar.
“There is so much happening and so much information coming from different areas. It’s difficult at this stage to paint a picture,” she told CNA’s Asia Now on Tuesday (Sep 17).
She added that transport is also an issue – damaged roads and destroyed bridges have hampered her organisation’s ability to deliver aid on a large scale. Overall response has also been impacted by the destruction of one of the Myanmar Red Cross’ offices, she said. 
The typhoon has compounded the problems of millions displaced in an ongoing conflict triggered by a military coup in February 2021, Khoury noted. Before the natural disaster, people already had limited access to healthcare, clean water and shelter. 
“There is quite a lot of explosive ordinance at the moment in Myanmar. With the rising flood waters, there’s concern about those (ordinance) harming more civilians,” said Khoury. 
The military junta came to power after ousting the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering nationwide non-violent demonstrations that it shut down with lethal force. 
The protest movement has since morphed into a widening armed rebellion and fighting has flared on multiple fronts.
Facing widespread devastation caused by Yagi in huge swathes of the country, the Myanmar army in a rare move asked for aid from other nations. It has previously blocked overseas humanitarian assistance.
India was one of the first to respond to Myanmar’s call. Singapore will also deliver humanitarian aid to communities affected by the typhoon.
With global warming and sea surface temperature rising, typhoons are becoming more common and travelling further north, said Associate Professor David Lallemant from the Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment. 
He added that such extreme weather events are going to be more frequent and likely. 
“It’s definitely something that (Southeast Asian) countries need to be prepared for, because just relying on the historical record of events will no longer be representative of what’s expected in the future,” he told CNA938’s Asia First.
IFRC’s Khoury said that the floods that have so far affected Myanmar’s central regions could flow downstream, affecting the south. 
“That’s also something that we’re closely keeping an eye on in order to ensure preparedness,” she said. 
She appealed to people to play a part in Myanmar’s recovery, as organisations around the world call for funding, noting that as media attention decreases, the amount of support may also drop. 
“There’s a lot of local support coming for the immediate survival needs and more will be needed in the coming weeks,” she said.