May 4, 2008 (DVB)-DVB journalists in Rangoon have sent in dozens of photos and video clips from various places in Rangoon after cyclone Nargis damaged most of the city’s infrastructure on Saturday. See our current photos or Watch Latest Video Clip

However, photos from slum areas outside the city and other parts of the country which suffered the most severe damage have not yet been sent in.

DVB will publish new pictures as soon as they are received.

If you would like to republish any of these photos, please send an email to (admin act dvb dot no) and include the date and file name of the photos.

The photos can be used freely for non-commercial purposes but photo credit must be given to the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).

4 May 2008 (DVB) – If international help doesn't come within a week, it will be impossible to survive, one Rangoon resident told DVB after tropical cyclone Nargis hit most of Rangoon on Saturday.

DVB talked to several residents in Rangoon on Sunday, 4th May.

Resident 1

What is important at the moment is food and shelter. We are facing electricity blackout. Water is not being pumped up. Now that there is no electricity supply, some people bought generators. Of course, those who could afford are utilising them but most of the people those who could not afford are in considerable problems. They have nothing to eat. As for commodity price, the price for both rice and cooking oil has risen; duck eggs, salt, cooking oil, onions and chillies, all their prices have gone up. The price just jumped and doubled. The price of a bag of rice is 30,000 and 29,000 (kyat). The price of fuel for a gallon is normally 4,000 – 4,500 , but now 6,000. That is the price of yesterday. Even that, the vehicles are not running regularly because they are not being rationed petrol and diesel. Only outside (private) cars which charge 500 and the like are running. (The public transport) cars are not working regularly.

Resident 2

We are facing drinking water problem. Now people are buying water from fire engines. The price for (the service of) fire brigade has gone up. The prices for food and drinks have all gone up. The price of rice has gone up. The price of rice has gone beyond 30,000 for a bag. The quote for the price of the generator was one thing in the morning and it had jumped by the evening. The price of petrol is 8,000-10,000 now. At the moment, I am looking for petrol.

Resident 3

As the tin roof of every house is overturned, we are all in trouble. We have nowhere to stay in rainwater. And we have no water. We have no electricity. Every household is in trouble. The price of rice, cooking oil, is rising. The pure water is expensive, things are like this; a bottle of pure water is 3-4-500 (kyat). The price of fish and meat is rising to 7-800-900. Everything is expensive. We are in great trouble. There is no water to drink.

Resident 4

Electricity won't come within 10-15 days. People are starving. Fuel is becoming scarce. People are all likely to die of starvation. If international help doesn't come within a week, it will be impossible survive. There will be nothing left to eat.

Resident 5

It will take quite awhile to make the situation return to normal regarding accommodation and food.

May 4, 2008 (DVB)-Deadly cyclone Nargis washed away some whole towns in the Irrawaddy delta region of Burma on Saturday as the death toll continued to rise, according to wire news sources and government announcements.

It is still difficult to get independent accounts on the scale of human casualties and damage outside Rangoon.

Rangoon residents told DVB that houses from sketchy satellite towns to buildings in downtown Rangoon were severely damaged.

Resident 1

As for the damages; Shwe Pauk is gone, North Dagon, Shwepyithar, all the new towns are gone. There is huge damage. All the new towns are gone. As for the cinema halls, their roofs have been blown off. Not only were the rooftops upturned, but people have nowhere to live. So what is happening is, even for the people to go there (for shelter) they have nothing to eat now.

Resident 2

We live near Yuzana Plaza. The sheets of glass on the shop fronts were all shattered. It is said that Yazana Plaza is temporarily closed. It happened to the whole town, the whole town is affected. All the trees have been uprooted. All the big trees have fallen. The situation at Inya area and other places is the same. At the airport, the trees have mostly been toppled. They say that power lines are also uprooted. There are also big trees around Kandawgyi and they all fell and you could do nothing. Now they say they are closing all the big pagodas in Rangoon.

Resident 3

In Hlaing Thayar (Township), most areas were affected, almost the whole town. The whole town was affected. No place escaped. It started around 10 (pm), both the wind and rains started. It only abated only in the morning, around 9am. Most houses' corrugated iron sheets were upturned. Trees were uprooted. Some houses collapsed when they were hit by the falling trees. Some huts collapsed. None of the ward escaped, everyone was affected. All the areas of Hlaing Thayar Township were affected.

Resident 4

All the small houses collapsed. All the power lines collapsed. They collapsed on top of the houses. Trees were uprooted all over the places. All the streets were blocked and people cleared them the streets, on their own initiative and cut them into pieces so that cars could go through. Then, when we went to other places, we had to turn back as some streets were blocked, and we had to travel on other routes. All the streets were crowded with people , it looks like a wreck of a city.

4 May 2008 (DVB) – Local residents complained that there had been no assistance from the government agencies after deadly cyclone Nargis hit Rangoon and several other cities cross the country.

DVB talked to several residents in Rangoon and the following are some of their accounts.

Resident 1

They (authorities) are doing nothing. After hovering above us in a helicopter once, they did nothing. They are not even coming to see us. We are relying on our own initiative, chopping the trees and turning them into firewood. We have to do things like that.

After raining for the whole day, it stopped. It is cloudy now. Every household is repairing their roofs. Rainwater is still leaking. Many people are in great trouble.

Resident 2

The (uprooted) trees are blocking all the streets. But no one is coming to chop and clear them away. If the government is doing something, I don't know where they are doing it now.

Resident 3

Here, there is nothing like a rescue effort. We have to do it ourselves. Now, the streets are blocked. We are unblocking it around our own house and paving our ways to travel. There is nothing (from the government). We are doing it with our own initiative.

Resident 4

No rescue efforts have been carried out. Even for fallen trees, they only sawed a bit so that cars could cross and piled up the bits of trees on the roadside. They are not taking them straight away. I have not seen anyone doing anything.

Resident 5

We don't know where they (the authorities) are, which corners they have gone to. It is not good to talk about it. They only know how to beat up people. In this kind of situation, we don't know where they are. These people only know how to beat up people.

May 4, 2008 (AFP)

Rangoon – May 3 Saturday, 2008 – The meteorology department warned at 8pm on Friday about the approaching cyclone. It said that it (the cyclone) could pass through Rangoon between 7 and 10 (pm).

Messages relating to the weather were sent to all GSM phones in Rangoon. They were sending the messages up until 11pm, and later, they stopped sending them.

At 12pm (midnight), rains started to come down gently. Some people went to bed and some didn't. It started to become rough and violent at 4am.

The rains also came with it a little bit, and in this situation, it became really violent by 6am. It went on continually to 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 am and stopped at noon.

All phone lines were cut off. All the electricity supplies were cut off and phone lines were switched off. All the trees were uprooted and blocked all the streets.

As there were rains, there were floods. The floods haven't receded yet. We lost all communication lines. Phone lines were cut off. When the rains stopped, all the huts collapsed. Almost all the roofs of the concrete buildings were upturned, No one (the authority) is helping us.

Rangoon – May 4 Sunday, 2008

There is nothing left in Rangoon. All the big trees have collapsed. All the power lines have collapsed. None of the big trees along Kandawgyi areas are left standing.

The zoo had also collapsed. All the animals are running out and staying in small groups here and there.

All trees and power lines at that area had been uprooted. We are running out of fuel and people could all die, possibly.

If the international help doesn't come within seven days, it would be impossible. There is nothing to eat.

A gallon of petrol is 8000 (Kyat). A bottle of pure water is 600. A nail to secure the corrugated iron is 100, a sheet of corrugated iron is 10,000 Kyat. And they are not selling them to everyone, only 10 sheets per person, nothing is left in Rangoon.

Electricity won't come within 10-15 days. They have to re-erect all the power lines. There is no tree left standing.

You can see Shwedagon pagoda from afar. The Shwedagon pagoda which was erected by King Alaungphaya around 1750s until 2008 , within more than 300 years , it is the worst. You could see the pagoda on the hill, standing alone.

People are feeling agitated and walking on the streets… Only one or two cars are travelling and roads are still blocked and they are still being cleared.

Another important thing, I heard that some inmates staged a break out and managed to escape at Insein Jail. I could not confirm the report as I haven’t been able to go there yet. I will try to get there.

My battery is running low. I should save it for further reports.