"The basic message was that they believe the provisional death toll
was about 10,000 with 3,000 missing," a diplomat present at the
meeting told Reuters in Bangkok.
Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as
Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph, leaving hundreds of
thousands of people homeless.

Before the cyclone hit, the government had only put out "storm
news," saying the cyclone would travel at about 30 miles an hour,
whereas it struck at almost four times that speed.

"The government misled people. They could have warned us about the
severity of the coming cyclone so we could be better prepared," said
Thin Thin, a grocery store owner.

In the former capital Yangon, food and fuel prices have soared as aid
agencies scrambled to deliver emergency supplies and assess the damage
in the five declared disaster zones, home to 24 million people.

The government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351
before increasing it Monday to 3,939.

A radio station broadcasting from the country's capital, Naypyitaw,
said that 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town,
Bogalay, in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where
the storm wreaked the most havoc.

"Reports are coming out of the delta coast, particularly the
Irrawaddy region, that in some villages up to 95 percent of houses have
been destroyed," said Matthew Cochrane at the International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' Geneva
headquarters.

"Widespread destruction is obviously making it more difficult to get
aid to people who need it most," said Michael Annear, regional
disaster management coordinator for the federation.

The situation in the countryside remained unclear because of poor
communications and roads left impassable by the storm.

Hundreds of thousands 'in dire need'
"It's clear that we're dealing with a very serious
situation. The full extent of the impact and needs will require an
extensive on-the-ground assessment," said Richard Horsey, a
spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand, for United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"What is clear at this point is that there are several hundred
thousands of people in dire need of shelter and clean drinking
water," Horsey said.

Video First person account
May 5: Jens Orback, who was in Myanmar when the cyclone hit, describes
what he saw.
MSNBC
U.N. agencies were working with the Red Cross and other organizations to
see how it can help those affected by the cyclone. UNICEF spokeswoman
Veronique Taveau said the U.N. children's agency alone has five
teams assessing the situation in the country.

The World Food Program has pre-positioned 500 tons of food in Yangon and
plans to bring in more relief supplies, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman
for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

At a meeting with foreign diplomats and representatives of U.N. and
international aid agencies, Myanmar's foreign ministry officials
said they welcomed international humanitarian assistance and urgently
need roofing materials, plastic sheets and temporary tents, medicine,
water purifying tablets, blankets and mosquito nets.

Neighboring Thailand announced that it would fly some aid in Tuesday.

In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. Embassy in Yangon had
authorized an emergency contribution of $250,000 to help with relief
efforts. But it added that the Myanmar government initially had refused
to allow a U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team into the country to
assess damage.

"We have a DART team that is standing by and ready to go into Burma
to help try to assess needs there," deputy spokesman Tom Casey told
reporters. "As of this moment, the Burmese government has not given
them permission, however, to go into the country so that is a barrier to
us being able to move forward."

Two Indian naval ships loaded with food, tents, blankets, clothing and
medicines would sail for Yangon soon, Indian's Ministry of External
Affairs said.
MSNBC News Servicesupdated 8:25 a.m. PT, Mon., May. 5, 2008
YANGON, Myanmar - The death toll from the cyclone that ravaged Myanmar
is expected to top 10,000, a senior official said Monday, with at least
4,000 people already listed as killed and nearly 3,000 others
unaccounted for.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win told foreign diplomats at a briefing that the
death toll could reach 10,000, according to diplomats who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors.




Largest city hit hard
The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools and cut electricity in
Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Older citizens said they had never
seen the city of some 6.5 million so devastated in their lifetimes.

With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually
nonfunctional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price,
and water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households
dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.

Many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage
would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on the outskirts of the
city of 5 million people.

At the city's notorious Insein prison, soldiers and police killed 36
prisoners to quell a riot that started when inmates were herded into a
large hall and started a fire to try to keep warm, a Thailand-based
human rights group said.

State television showed military and police units on rescue and cleanup
operations in Yangon, but residents complained the junta's response
was weak.

"Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and
aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year," a
retired government worker told Reuters, referring to protests led by
Buddhist monks last year that were swiftly crushed.