AN INTERNATIONAL relief effort was mobilising last night after Burmese military rulers estimated that 10,000 people had been killed in a weekend cyclone and acknowledged they were willing to accept foreign help.
Aid workers believe at least one million people have been left homeless by Cyclone Nargis, which barrelled across southwest and central Burma on Saturday, unleashing 190km/h winds, torrential rains and flooding that caused a catastrophic trail of destruction.
The reclusive military government initially said casualties ran into the hundreds, but dramatically revised the toll yesterday.
The foreign minister, Nyan Win, told diplomats the number of dead could reach 10,000, with at least 3,000 still missing, making it the worst natural disaster in east Asia since the 2004 tsunami.
Andrew Kirkwood, country director of Save the Children, whose teams began distributing aid, said: "Older people I've spoken to in Yangon [Rangoon] say this is the worst storm they've seen in the 60 years they've been alive. Everyone recognises this was unprecedented."
The worst-affected areas in the Irrawaddy delta have still to be reached, but several towns were flattened and many villages along the coast were covered in mud when the storm surge subsided.
In one delta town alone, Bogalay, 2,879 were missing, fuelling fears the numbers could rise dramatically.
Save the Children estimated that in the outlying area of Rangoon where it works, between 50,000 and 100,000 people had no shelter after their flimsy homes were wrecked.
"I think more than one million people could be homeless very easily," said Mr Kirkwood, speaking from Rangoon.
"There are seven million living in the Irrawaddy delta area and it has been hugely affected, with 90 to 95 per cent of houses destroyed in some places."
The scale of the destruction is so immense that ministers in the Burmese regime, always intensely suspicious of international aid agencies, asked for outside assistance, a move the government shunned even during the 2004 tsunami.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it had been given a "careful green light" and added that the UN was now working out how to deliver aid to the country as quickly as possible.
"The government indicated willingness to accept international assistance through the UN agencies," said WFP spokesman Paul Risley. "I'd say it was a careful green light."
Clean drinking water is a pressing need, particularly in Rangoon, a city of six million, where those without wells are in desperate need after supplies were cut. Effective sanitation is also needed to prevent the spread of disease and life-threatening diarrhoea.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it would initially make up to €1 million available for disaster relief. - (Guardian service)