Nearly 900 people were saved from tidal waves and flooding in the Pyinsalu islands, located on the southern coast of the Irrawaddy Delta, by standing on bridges built by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) recently. As the high winds of Cyclone Nargis battered southern Myanmar’s delta region and high tidal waves and floodwaters covered low-lying areas, hundreds of people flocked to at least 22 ADRA bridges that had been constructed months before to link isolated communities in the Pyinsalu Sub-Township, a patchwork of rivers and islands on the extreme southern edge of Labutta Township. One structure alone, the Lay Yin Kwin Bridge, which measures 140 feet in length, held 145 people for several hours, while the storm waters rose and then receded.

"People stood on the bridge and were saved because the bridge was the highest point during the tidal waves and subsequent flooding," said Raymond Chevalier, Cyclone Nargis Emergency Response Coordinator for the ADRA network, from Yangon.

Other bridges also withstood severe stresses to provide refuge for residents fleeing the rising waters. The Pyin Htaung Twin Bridge, spanning 100 feet, held 101 people, receiving no damage in the process. The Ma Gu Stream Bridge, also measuring 100 feet, saved the lives of 86 people and had only a broken hand rail. The Thingan Byi Bridge, one of two 15-foot spans, the smallest of all the bridges, held 30 people and suffered no damage, according to ADRA emergency personnel who surveyed all the structures following the disaster. A total of 885 people who stood on the bridges were saved.

The bridges were built as part of a three-year tsunami rehabilitation project that was being implemented by the ADRA office in Myanmar following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Additionally, ADRA constructed 10 jetties, structures similar to breakwaters, to slow down shore erosion.

As Cyclone Nargis made landfall in the southern coast of Myanmar late on May 2, an ADRA team, lead by Teddy Dinh, associate country director for the ADRA office in Myanmar, was caught in the storm. Unable to escape the area where they had built several bridges in the past and were now constructing a jetty near the village of Amageley, the ADRA workers found refuge with 150 others inside a warehouse packed with eight feet of rice, while the waters rose around them up to four feet above the rice.

"It was like a tsunami," said Dinh, days after the tragedy. For two days, Dinh and several of his staff survived by drinking coconut water and eating the meat from the coconuts. Other survivors resorted to eating the livestock carcasses lying in the streets in the immediate hours after the storm.

Since the storm, ADRA emergency personnel in the Pyinsalu area have been responding to the needs of survivors by providing medical aid, food, and transportation. The situation, however, remains precarious.

“We are humbled by the plight of those who lost everything, including their loved ones, in this disaster,” said Mark Castellino, programs director for the ADRA network emergency response in Myanmar.

Through coordination with the United Nations and the government of Myanmar, ADRA has been requested to provide emergency aid to at least 30,000 people in the Pyinsalu Sub-Township. In addition, ADRA is also assisting more than 120,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and others in various camps in the towns of Labutta and Myaungmya. To better assist survivors, ADRA has deployed mobile teams who are providing medical assistance to the injured and to those suffering from severe dehydration. Each team can deliver up to six metric tons of food during a trip, enough to feed at least 2,000 people for a week. Currently, ADRA is the only relief organization working in Pyinsalu, where aid can only reach the affected villages by boat.

ADRA’s emergency response is centered in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, which suffered the most damage as a result of cyclonic winds that reached more than 120 mph (193 km/h). Although officially 77,738 have been reported dead and 56,917 are missing, other estimates set those numbers considerably higher. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on May 18 that up to 2.4 million people have been affected, of which 1.4 million severely.