Hallo zusammen , ich werde ab 16. Mai zwei wochen in Myanmar sein - und hoffe, die Lage hat sich bis dorthin wider gebessert. Habe heute eine email von der Reiseagentur in Yangon erhalten, der Inhalt ( März ist wohl Mai ?) :
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Dear ladies and gentlemen,
May I use this opportunity to inform you about the current situation in Yangon. As you have probably heard on the news, Yangon and the delta region were severely hit by the cyclone Nargis.
The storm reached Yangon during the night from 2nd to 3rd March (Friday to Saturday) at about midnight and caused heavy damage until about 09:00am in the morning.
Still today, the streets of Yangon look disastrous! On Saturday, there was almost no transportation, due to collapsed trees all over the city that were or have been blocking the streets. Huge advertisement signs and power masts fell down, roofs were blown away, windows smashed and entire houses/cottages were damaged by trees.
Moreover, neither taxis nor busses were driving and people were stuck at home, being busy anyway with repairing their homes. All flights were canceled and planes from Bangkok turned on their way to Yangon and flew back to Bangkok.
So far, civilians, soldiers and even monks are trying to clear the roads step by step, partly with even simplest tools. We expect all major roads to be cleared by today, so that traffic starts floating more or less normally. Domestic and international flights are operating normally.
As far as we know, no guest from our hotels or the travel agency got injured. Also, all our colleagues from our affiliated companies are fine, however, many colleagues suffer from sever damages to their homes (collapsed trees all over the place, roofs gone, etc.).
Please note that line phones are not working! Mobile phones are working only partly.
There is no internet connection! Please, do not expect any e-mails from us. The organization of any tour needs to be postponed until the internet is working again.
Right now, it is impossible to foresee when life will be back to normal. As there is no electricity, people are dependent on diesel. Prices are raising steadily, not only for diesel, but also for petrol, water, food and construction materials.
Another huge problem is that most households do not have any running water anymore. We can only hope that these problems will be solved as soon as possible. But probably it will take some time.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, please forward this mail to each and every friend who has any connection with Myanmar or Uniteam.
Thanks and best regards from Yangon,
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Gruss, Lutz