The U.S. military has given up trying to deliver aid to Myanmar. Thursday, four American Navy ships filled with relief equipment and supplies for the victims of Cyclone Nargis turned around and left the country. Reportedly among the relief supplies on the boats were 22 heavy-lift helicopters, amphibious vehicles and water purification equipment — all goods that aid worker Dean Hirsch says would have saved lives.
"The delta region, the majority of it is still underwater," says Hirsch, who is president of the American aid organization World Vision. "I was in the monsoons yesterday. They've started. That means heavy, heavy rains. Tides have risen. The land is flooded already. You can not get around by road, and it's difficult to get around by boat."
But Hirsch says all hope might not be lost. As the American ships pulled away, the contents of a French aid ship were being unloaded. A press officer with the U.N.'s World Food Program told NPR that aid from a French naval ship that was also not allowed to dock is coming to Yangon a different way.
"People need those goods immediately," Hirsch says. The United Nations estimates that the cyclone killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 missing. Some 2.4 million people are still badly in need of food, shelter or medical care. The American retreat comes after three weeks and a reported 15 attempts by the U.S. to convince the military junta running the country to accept its help.
When you look at total land mass, Hirsch says, the affected area is more vast than the destruction wrought by the 2004-2005 tsunami, which devastated Indonesia and reached as far as South Asia. "When you think of that, no one government could be expected to handle all of this," Hirsch says.
For now, though, it is one country that's making a big difference for Myanmar. Hirsch says hundreds of tons of food and other supplies were moved from the French vessel, the Mistral, and put on a U.N. chartered ship, the Claudia. Hirsch, who is on the ground in Yangon, says aid was being unloaded at a ceremony at a major port in Myanmar.
When the Bryant Park Project spoke with Hirsch, he said he'd just finished a meeting with the World Food Program. "They have food stocks to get us through August," Hirsch says. "That's very good news."
But it's an earlier date — June 15th — that is even more critical, Hirsch says. That's because after that date farmers in the Irrawaddy delta region — the so-called rice basket for Myanmar and beyond — miss out on the important summer planting. If those seeds don't get in the ground, Hirsch says, greater catastrophe could befall Myanmar.
"Twenty-four hours a day, efforts are being made now so that these people can plant the land," Hirsch say. "Will they get 100 percent harvest? Obviously not. But we're going to work to make sure the food deficit is minimal."
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