UPDATE See below
The Bangkok Post:
According to Ambassador Bansarn Bunnag, the cyclone wreaked severe damage in Rangoon where the Thai embassy is located. The military dictators have renamed the town Yangon.
Telecommunications, transport and other utilities were virtually out of service, resulting in the shutdown of the international airport, the ambassador said.
As of late Sunday, Thai Airways International was still unable to operate flights to Rangoon as a result of infrastructure damage as well as weather conditions, he said.
The Thai embassy has set up an emergency service and sent out teams to visit Thai nationals who either work or happened to be visiting the country.
Over 100 Thai tourists were stranded in various hotels, but all are reported to be safe.
The Bangkok Post:
Burma's largest city was without electricity and water Monday in the wake of category-three Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 351 people and caused untold damage to the fragile infrastructure and food supply.
State-controlled media reports said Nargis blew off the Bay of Bengal late Friday night packing winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour. It killed 19 people in Rangoon, including 11 women, 109 on the island of Hai Gyi, and 223 in the coastal Irrawaddy Division.
Rangoon, the former capital and the country's commercial hub, was among the places hardest hit by the storm that uprooted trees, toppled electricity and telephone poles and burst water pipes. On Monday, the city of several million was without basic utilities.
The devastation has raised questions about whether the government will pursue its plan to hold a referendum on May 10, to vote on a new constitution that promises to cement the military's future role in politics.
"Rangoon, a city of several million people is without electricity and without water, so I don't see how you can conduct a referendum under those conditions," said one Rangoon-based western diplomat. "I think it is fair to say there is a high probability the referendum might be postponed."
The Irrawaddy Division (region), the Burmese rice bowl, was also hard hit by Nargis, although details remain sketchy.
The third most populous city of Pathein, the capital of the Irrawaddy, was reportedly inundated by floodwaters causing untold damage and deaths.
The fertile, low-lying Irrawaddy Division is also the chief rice growing area. Damage to the Irrawaddy's irrigation systems and crops was still unreported by state television, which is tightly monitored in this military-run country.
"The rice was high. This will certainly effect the rice crop negatively," said a western diplomat.
Observers in Rangoon said it could take weeks for the government to restore electricity in Rangoon, given the number of poles that had been toppled.
Prices on petrol, bottled water, and food had already jumped drastically in Rangoon by Monday.
A bottle of water was selling for 1,000 kyat, compared with 350 kyats last week, while the minimum bus fare had jumped from 50 kyats to 500 kyats in the city, a Rangoon resident said.
Last week's blackmarket rate for the kyat was 1,120 to the dollar.
Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein appeared in Rangoon on Sunday, to pass out food and supplies to victims of the cyclone, but much of the cleanup work has been done by the people themselves.
"The military cleared the trees from the main roads but we had to do it ourselves here," said a resident of Yankin township, a Rangoon suburb.
It remains to be seen whether the government will launch an appeal for international humanitarian aid.
"International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required. The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone," said Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB).
BP: 1. Will Thailand offer any assistance to Burma? (UPDATE: I have now hard Noppadol say they will give USD50,000) 2. Will the referendum be delayed? That people have no food or water is surely not a great enough impediment for the Burmese government to to be concerned about? 3. What will this do to the rice price?
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