The death toll from the cyclone that ravaged the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar may exceed 100,000, the senior U.S. diplomat in the military-ruled country said Wednesday.
Workers pour rice into bags to be loaded on to a truck for distribution in Yangon on May 7.
3 of 3more photos » "The information we are receiving indicates over 100,000 deaths," said the U.S. charge d'affaires in Yangon, Shari Villarosa.
The U.S. figure is almost five times the 22,000 the Myanmar government has estimated.
The U.S. estimate is based on data from an international non-governmental organization, Villarosa said without naming the group. She called the situation in Myanmar "more and more horrendous."
"I think most of the damage was caused by these 12-foot storm surges," she said.
Villarosa also said that about 95 percent of the buildings in the delta region were destroyed when Cyclone Nargis battered the area late Friday into Saturday.
Based on the same data, 70,000 people are missing in the Irrawaddy Delta, which has a population of nearly 6 million people, Villarosa said. The official Myanmar government figure for the missing is 41,000.
Villarosa said, "I can only assume that the longer the delay, the more victims that are created."
Little aid has reached the area since Nargis hit, and on Wednesday, crowds of hungry survivors stormed reopened shops in the devastated Irrawaddy delta.
The United Nations urged the military junta to grant visas to international relief workers amid estimates of 1 million homeless.
