Myanmar Junta Boss Admits Surprise at Flood Scale

Myanmar’s junta boss Min Aung Hlaing told a disaster management meeting on Tuesday in Naypyitaw that the regime had not expected such heavy rainfall.

He told the meeting that flood alerts were issued but no disaster plan appears to have been in place.

The junta media had reported flooding caused by Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam and other countries before Myanmar was affected.

Flood and landslide warnings were limited to small spaces in junta newspapers.

Only after hundreds were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by floods in Naypyitaw, Karenni (Kayah), Karen and Shan states, and Bago, Magwe, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady regions did the regime dispatch rescue teams and pictures of military officers visiting flood-hit areas appeared in junta newspapers.

Instead of using its helicopters for rescue operations, the regime continued air raids on liberated territories, killing civilians.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Min Aung Hlaing said the flooding may be the worst to hit central Myanmar.

The regime said 226 people had been killed and 77 others were missing, while nearly 160,000 houses were damaged or destroyed by floods.

Rescuers estimate that flooding deaths exceed 1,000 people as rescue teams still cannot reach certain areas.

Dr Win Myat Aye, the humanitarian affairs and disaster management minister of the civilian National Unity Government, told The Irrawaddy that over 1,000 people were killed or missing and more than 700,000 had been affected by the floods.