Tuesday, 27 April 2010 23:02 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - A rainstorm has ripped through the riverside town of Pakokku in central Burma, destroying 30 houses and killing at least three residents, including two children, pinned beneath a toppled tree, residents said.
The gale started at 5:30 p.m. on Monday in Pakokku, which lies about 19 miles (30 kilometres) from Bagan, on the west bank of the Irrawaddy River in Magwe Division. The town was soon strewn with debris from damaged houses, and trees and power lines were down. Two children and one adult were crushed to death under a fallen tree and many people were injured, a resident said.
Mizzima was unable as yet to verify the number of injuries.
“Heavy wind and rain combined. Some trees were wrenched from the ground [as if] by the roots. Some trees snapped in the middle and fell,” a resident of Myakantha Quarter, on the west side of Pakokku, said.
“The rain and wind came with such great force that we [my family and I] closed the doors of our home and stayed inside. When we came out to survey the damage we saw that trees were uprooted … and the zinc roofing of a house on the opposite side of the street had been blown away.”
Residents said more than 30 houses were destroyed in the town that is the country’s second-largest centre for Buddhist learning.
The worst hit area was No. 15 Quarter.
“Many trees and lamp posts fell down, even in this street. Municipal workers and firemen are still clearing the broken branches and wires …the storm hit almost the entire town, so they can’t repair it all in a day,” a person who lives near Myoma Market said.
A scholar from Burma’s department of Metrology and Hydrology, Dr Tun Lwin has warned of thunder and windstorms across the country from March until May 20.
A bureau map shows the area covered in cloud and a storm in the Bay of Bengal.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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