Current:Home > InvestHeavy flooding in southern Myanmar displaces more than 10,000 people-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Heavy flooding in southern Myanmar displaces more than 10,000 people
View Date:2024-12-23 18:44:42
BANGKOK (AP) — Flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Myanmar’s southern areas has displaced more than 10,000 people and disrupted traffic on the rail lines that connect the country’s biggest cities, officials and state-run media said Monday.
A senior official at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, said constant rainfall in the Bago region that began last week caused flooding in the low-lying areas of its capital, Bago township. She said there were no casualties reported so far, but that more than 10,000 people had to abandon their homes.
Bago township recorded 7.87 inches (200 millimeters) of rainfall, its highest level in 59 years, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said Sunday. Rain or thundershowers was forecast for across the country until Monday evening.
One of the leaders of an emergency rescue team in Bago told The Associated Press that the flooding was at least 7-8 feet (2.44 meters) deep in low-lying areas and 3-4 feet downtown.
“Almost the whole area of the town was flooded,” That Zin Maung, chairman of the Mizzima Thukha Charity Foundation said by phone on Monday. “It is the third flood in the town this year and the worst in many years. All the monasteries in the town have opened relief camps. Charity organizations are evacuating people from low-lying areas as much as they can.”
A 55-year-old resident of Bago’s Pan Hlaing ward interviewed by phone said the flood waters were about 5-6 feet deep in her neighborhood, and her family members were living on the second and third floors of their house.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Myanmar’s military government prefers to tightly control the release of information, said the water was still rising steadily in her neighborhood, which had never flooded badly before.
Social Welfare Ministry official Lay Shwe Zin Oo said people were sheltering in 32 relief camps, schools and Buddhist monasteries in Bago, while the authorities were providing food, drinking water and other essential assistance.
Reports in the state-run Myanmar Alinn newspaper on Monday said trains that departed from Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city in central Myanmar, and from southern Mawlamyine township were halted en route. Scheduled departures from Yangon, the biggest city in the country, were canceled after rail lines were flooded by the rapid flow of water from mountain torrents and the spillage from dams in the Bago region.
Myanmar Alinn also said some neighborhoods in Kyaikto township in southern Mon state were flooded by water from mountain torrents, and 555 people there were taking shelters in three relief camps on Sunday.
Myanmar experiences extreme weather virtually every year during the monsoon season. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 people. In July and August this year, floods in Mon, Kayin and Rakhine states and the regions of Bago and Magway killed five people and displaced about 60,000.
veryGood! (54331)
Related
- Kendall Jenner Is Back to Being a Brunette After Ditching Blonde Hair
- How to watch Iowa vs LSU Monday: Time, TV for Women's NCAA Tournament Elite 8 game
- 2024 men's NCAA Tournament expert picks: Predictions for Sunday's Elite Eight games
- Full hotels, emergency plans: Cities along eclipse path brace for chaos
- My Little Pony finally hits the Toy Hall of Fame, alongside Phase 10 and Transformers
- Riley Strain's Tragic Death: Every Twist in the Search for Answers
- Chance Perdomo, star of ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ and ‘Gen V,’ dies in motorcycle crash at 27
- Salah fires title-chasing Liverpool to 2-1 win against Brighton, top of the standings
- Video shows masked man’s apparent attempt to kidnap child in NYC; suspect arrested
- First they tried protests of anti-gay bills. Then students put on a play at Louisiana’s Capitol
Ranking
- Wisconsin authorities believe kayaker staged his disappearance and fled to Europe
- Beyoncé drops 27-song track list for new album Cowboy Carter
- Solar eclipse glasses are needed for safety, but they sure are confusing. What to know.
- Virginia Seeks Millions of Dollars in Federal Funds Aimed at Reducing Pollution and Electrifying Transportation and Buildings
- Shel Talmy, produced hits by The Who, The Kinks and other 1960s British bands, dead at 87
- 1 year after Evan Gershkovich's arrest in Russia, Biden vows to continue working every day for his release
- Afternoon shooting in Nashville restaurant kills 1 man and injures 5 others
- NC State men’s, women’s basketball join list of both teams making Final Four in same year
Recommendation
-
All the Ways Megan Fox Hinted at Her Pregnancy With Machine Gun Kelly
-
Are banks, post offices, UPS and FedEx open on Easter 2024? Here's what to know
-
Everything's Bigger: See the Texas Rangers' World Series rings by Jason of Beverly Hills
-
Alabama's Mark Sears has taken what his mom calls the backroad route to basketball glory
-
Surprise bids revive hope for offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico after feds cancel lease sale
-
A Power Line Debate Pits Environmental Allies Against Each Other in the Upper Midwest
-
2 killed, 3 injured during shootings at separate Houston-area birthday parties
-
AT&T notifies users of data breach and resets millions of passcodes