YANGON, Myanmar — Five days after the powerful cyclone struck, this city, Myanmar’s commercial capital and until Saturday a verdant oasis of wide avenues, was far from back to normal on Thursday. Thousands of trees lie where they fell, jetties on the Yangon River have collapsed into the water and only a few traffic lights are working. Most of Yangon, a city of five million people, remains without electricity, and even the local branch of the Ministry of Energy has no power.
The death toll in Yangon has been small compared with the devastation in the delta of the Irrawaddy River. The government has counted fewer than 400 people killed here compared with the more than 22,000 dead, and by some unofficial estimates possibly tens of thousands more, over all in Myanmar since the huge cyclone hit on Saturday.
But the inability of the government to clear debris and restore basic services like water and power in what is the country’s wealthiest city is a measure of how difficult Myanmar’s recovery could be. In Yangon, the top American diplomat’s Cadillac is trapped in the garage by giant fallen trees, and lines for rationed gasoline snake through the city for blocks. Generators hum everywhere. Buildings have lost roofs and facades. The sign for the Hotel Yangon is missing its Y and N.
Essential equipment — chainsaws, machines capable of lifting heavy debris and helicopters — is in short supply or absent altogether. The government has 12 helicopters, but only five are operational and can transport supplies to far-flung locations, diplomats here say. In neighborhoods here where soldiers are clearing trees, they are often using small machetes and axes to hack away at thick branches. Neighborhoods where workers have chainsaws look and smell like lumberyards.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/world/asia/09yangon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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