Entire families wiped out in Myanmar delta region

MYANMAR: Haunted survivors emerging from the devastation of Myanmar's storm-tossed southwest say entire families were wiped out when Cyclone Nargis cut its deadly path through the region.

Huddled in the township of Labutta, they told tales of survival against the odds even as children, mothers and fathers were swept away by the floodwaters that submerged huge swathes of the Irrawaddy delta.

"The storm came into our village, and a giant wave washed in, dragging everything into the sea," said one man in his 20s, who had trekked in from Kanyinkone village. "Houses collapsed, buildings collapsed, and people were swept away. I only survived by hanging on to a big tree," he told AFP.

"Only about 20 percent of the people survived in our village. I am the only one who survived in my family. My wife and my two children died in the storm."

Labutta town is surrounded by 63 small villages dependent on fishing and salt mining in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta, one of the areas worst hit when the cyclone brought tidal waves washing over their homes.

"The waves were so strong, they ripped off all my clothes.

I was left naked hanging in a tree," said one teenage survivor.

Labutta, Thursday, AFP