Humanity in disaster, after Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

Andrew Gray (May 26th, 2008)

Delano was in Myanmar (Burma) on assignment when Cyclone Nargis struck the country. News of the incoming cyclone was not announced on local television or radio, so most people were caught by surprise. As he weathered the storm inside the safety of his concrete hotel, he couldn’t imagine how people directly in the path of the cyclone, huddled inside bamboo huts, could survive the night.

Starting the next day, before the government excluded foreign eyes and hands from heart of the disaster, Delano traveled to the Irrawaddy Delta area. Leaving Yangon, he saw military troops clearing trees rather than rushing toward the human crisis.

The further he traveled the more bodies he saw and the fewer government troops. He witnessed survivors trying to pull the pieces of life back together. But lacking food, forced to drink tainted water, and exposed to the elements, their lives were (and are) still in the balance.

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Photography by James Whitlow Delano