BOGALAY (MYANMAR) - WHEN the massive storm surge churned up by Cyclone Nargis struck his village, fisherman Zaw Win clung to a tree for three hours.

The strength in his arms saved his life. He could only watch helplessly as his wife, 10-year-old son and four-year-old daughter were dragged to their deaths by the head-high waves.

'I just held on and cried. I knew I'd lost my family,' the 32-year-old said in Bogalay, one of the towns in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, which was among the worst hit by Nargis' 190kmh winds and the wall of water that followed.

Mr Zaw said only 40 of the 2,000 people in his coastal village survived.

To get to Bogalay, 90km south-west of Yangon, he had to wade through floating corpses before finding a boat to carry him for two hours through devastated swampland - all that remains of what was the country's rice bowl.

Bogalay's Buddhist temple and primary school are teeming with the homeless from nearby villages. But many others have chosen to stay near their collapsed huts, building tents from snapped branches and reeds.

REUTERS