At least 11 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless in severe flooding across Myanmar since Tuesday.
Townships in Mandalay, Bago and Naypyitaw regions and Shan, Karenni, Mon and Karen states were inundated by heavy rain trigged by Typhoon Yagi as it made landfall in Vietnam.
The Myanmar Fire Services Department (MFSD), which is conducting rescue operation, on Wednesday said 10 people from five villages were killed and about 53,927 people displaced by heavy flooding in Yamethin Township in southernmost Mandalay Region.
Flooding also hit townships in the nearby administrative capital of Naypyitaw, trapping hundreds of people in inundated houses.
Several people who were trapped in flooded houses or in trees in Naypyitaw’s Tatkon Township begged for help on Facebook on Wednesday.
“We had no time to move our belongings as water level rose rapidly and had to climb on the roof,” a Naypyitaw resident said. “The floodwaters are very strong, and they were higher than a man.”
The military regime on Thursday announced that rail transport between Yangon and Mandalay would stop temporarily as a railway bridge in Mandalay’s Pyawbwe township was swept away by floods.
Waters also inundated the old Yangon-Mandalay highway in Naypyitaw, blocking vehicle transport, the junta said.
One woman was killed in a landslide triggered by flooding in Hopong Township in eastern Shan State.
On Thursday, heavy rain also destroyed an ancient pagoda at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bagan in Mandalay Region.
Meteorologist U Win Naing told The Irrawaddy that Mandalay, Sagaing and Magwe regions will suffer more heavy rain in the wake of Typhoon Yagi.
In July, thousands of peoples from towns and villages along the Irrawaddy River, also suffered severe flooding as the water exceeded the critical level due to heavy rains upstream.
