Cyclone Nargis

I tried to call my home in Yangon since Saturday morning. Until Friday evening, I could still call my home. My father told me that the wind was blowing heavily, but the situation was still OK. The next morning when I tried to call my home, the lines are already down. I tried the whole saturday but I could not get through. Sunday morning, still no phone contact. Finally, I tried to call my friend who has a mobile phone. He said the situation was really bad. He promised me to go and see my family. Yesterday, I called him again, and he said my family was OK. My flat was in the top floor, so I was quite worried for them. There are two or three roofs blown away, and all the satellite dishes destroyed, but apart from that, the building is intact. Water was pouring into the house and my family had to moved things into the rooms where it was dry.

Electricity was cut off but, thanks to one of our neighbours who has an electric generator, we could pump water to our room. For those without any generator, water is a big problem. There is still no relief effort from the government agencies, and people are cleaning the roads by themselves.

Prices of food had shoot up and the price of building materials has doubled. One bottle of water (25 liter) is said to be 1000 kyats, and a liter of drinking water is said to be 600 kyats. Even then, people cannot buy as much as they like, as the shop keepers sell one bottle per person.

A few shops open and many shoppers are trying to buy things. Some super markets opened today, and they have to limit the number of shoppers into the supermarket.

My friend said it would be very difficult to restore the city into its previous condition, especially electricity and telecommunication as it will cost millions of dollars to repair all the infrastructure.

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