Sawt Falasteen - Volunteers rush to help as Myanmar flood toll surges

Floods and landslides have killed almost 350 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which hit the region last weekend, according to official figures.

One man told AFP how he had tried to rescue people with ropes, as floodwaters four metres (15 feet) high surged through the hill town of Kalaw in Shan state on September 10.

"The current was very strong and even some buildings were destroyed," he said, describing pieces of furniture being washed through the streets.

"I could see trapped families in the distance standing on the roofs of their houses," said the man, who works for a local non-governmental group.

"I heard there were 40 bodies in the hospital," he added.

A businesswoman in Yangon who runs a company in Kalaw told AFP her staff there had reported nearly 60 people had been killed in the town.

The junta has not specified how many of the 74 people it says have died from the floods were in Kalaw.

Around 30 kilometres (18 miles) away at the tourist hotspot of Inle Lake, flood levels on Saturday had risen to the second storey of houses built on stilts above the water, according to one man there helping to evacuate his family.

In some areas near the lake "whole villages have been submerged", he told AFP on Sunday, asking to remain anonymous.

"The elders say this is the highest level of flooding they have seen," he said.

Locals had "lost foods such as rice and salt", he added.

"Now people are drinking rain water. There will be no water once that is gone."

AFP images showed the flood waters high against the wooden houses on the lake.

Cars and trucks carrying volunteers were streaming north from commercial hub Yangon to reach affected areas in Taungoo in the Bago region and around the capital Naypyidaw, AFP reporters said.

The vehicles were loaded with palettes of bottled water, bundles of clothes and dried food, while some had boats strapped to their roofs.

"We want to help anyone who needs help at the moment. That is why we arranged to go to the flooding area," said one woman heading for Taungoo.

"We brought food, water and some clothes."

- More misery -

The floods have added to people's miseries in Myanmar, where millions have already been displaced by more than three years of war since the military seized power in 2021.

The deluge has left 74 dead and 89 people missing as of Friday evening, according to state media, and more than 235,000 displaced.

But with roads and bridges damaged as well as phone and internet lines down, information has been limited.

The Sittaung and Bago rivers, which flow through central and southern Myanmar, were both still above dangerous levels on Sunday, state media said, although water levels were expected to fall in the coming days.

In the east, the Thanlwin river was more than two metres above its danger level in the state capital Hpa-an on Saturday, state media reported.

The junta's previous death toll, released on Friday, was 33.

Thailand's weather office warned Sunday of further heavy rain in provinces along the Mekong river.

Authorities in Vietnam on Sunday gave an updated toll of 281 dead and 67 missing.

- Request for aid -

Myanmar's junta chief made a rare request for foreign aid to deal with the floods, state media reported on Saturday.

The military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.

Last year, it suspended travel authorisations for aid groups trying to reach around a million victims of powerful Cyclone Mocha.

On Saturday, the United Nations's Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Myanmar and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told AFP they could not comment on the junta's request.

Heavy monsoon rains lash Southeast Asia every year, but human-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay longer over land, according to a study published in July.

L.Hussein--SF-PST