Myanmar cyclone death toll exceeds 22,000

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) — Myanmar’s rice-growing heartland has been devastated by Cyclone Nargis, threatening long-term food shortages for survivors, experts said Wednesday.

The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that five states hit hardest by Saturday’s cyclone produce 65 percent of the country’s rice, The Associated Press reported.

The region was also home to 80 percent of its aquaculture, 50 percent of its poultry and 40 percent of its pig production, the FAO said.

Rice is the most important staple in the impoverished country, which has produced enough to feed itself and, more recently, stave off rising prices.

“There is likely going to be incredible shortages in the next 18 to 24 months,” Sean Turnell, an economist specializing in Myanmar at Australia’s Macquarie University told AP. “Things will be tough.”

The U.N. World Food Program, which has started feeding the estimated one million homeless, said there were immediate concerns about salvaging harvested rice in the flooded Irrawaddy delta, known as the country’s rice bowl.

The cyclone, which battered the country last weekend with winds of 240 km/hr(150 mph) and 3.5 meter (11.48 feet) storm water surges, killed more than 22,000. Another 41,000 people are still missing, according to state-run media outlets in Myanmar, and the U.N. estimates one million could be homeless.

Harrowing details have started to emerge, with one woman describing to the Democratic Voice of Burma — a broadcast media group run by opposition expatriates — a wall of water jumping from the Gulf of Mottama into the delta areas.

Source: cnn.com