ABC NEWS request

3,000 People Are Missing From Just One Town

Hi Mala:

I am producing a piece for World News with Charles Gibson on the cyclone and devastation in Myanmar. I am wondering if you have any contacts in Myanmar who would be willing to speak about the cyclone by phone with me. Please let me know. I am looking for eyewitness accounts.
Thanks so much.

Barbara Friedman
Producer
ABC NEWS
World News with Charles Gibson
212-456-2414
barbara.friedman@abc.com

Cyclone Devastates Myanmar, 10,000 Feared Dead

With the death toll approaching 10,000 from the devastating cyclone that slammed Myanmar on Saturday, U.N. agencies and independent humanitarian groups rushed to prepare assistance for victims. "The U.N. team has been activated and is ready to supplement the effort of the government in responding to this disaster as soon as they receive visas,"said Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In an rare appearance, first lady Laura Bush spoke to the media from the White House briefing room, urging the government of Myanmar to accept aid from the United States. No aid response teams are allowed to enter the country without the government's permssion. "The government of Burma should accept this team quickly -- as well as other offers of international assistance," she told reporters. An outspoken critic of Myanmar's ruling military regime, the first lady suggested that it kept critical information about the storm from people in its path. "Burma's state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path," she said. "The response to this cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta's failures to meet its people's basic needs." The U.S. Embassy in the Southeast Asian nation is immediately providing $250,000 in aid from an existing emergency fund to humanitarian organizations working on the ground, Laura Bush said.

Nearly 4,000 people were killed Saturday by a devastating cyclone that smashed into Myanmar and officials fear it toll could go as high as 10,000.

The death toll is likely to climb sharply because government officials say the storm hit with such force that 3,000 people from a single town cannot be found.