Myanmar cyclone victim takes solace in new baby

"Some people are lucky. They lost their roofs but they still have the structure of the homes," said Din Aung Than, Ohn Tay's father. "But we don't have anything left to fix at all. And we don't have material to rebuild with."

In a corner of the monastery on Thursday, children slurped up curry-flavored soup with a few spoonfuls of rice as monks chatted with refugees nearby.

She We, looking tired and dirty, noted she had not seen anything like this storm in all her 99 years.

"But we are lucky. We heard that in the next town, hundreds of people died," said the frail-looking woman, wearing the country's traditional long sarong-like skirt, her white hair tied in a bun.

Pointing to the clusters of children, their faces slathered with a white paste that serves as a homemade sunscreen, a man interjected: "We still have our babies."

She We's daughter, Daw Thay, sat surrounded by her three young children.

"My children were crying all night. There is not enough food. There will be no food this evening," the 42-year-old woman said.

The monks, who depend on people's donations, are going without, giving their meager rations to the children and the elderly, "but there isn't enough," Daw Thay said.

Even though the town is relatively accessible by land from Yangon, the country's biggest city, and military trucks can be seen traversing the area, not enough food is coming in. The soldiers have been cutting away trees, repairing bridges and dragging away the carcasses of dead water buffalos and other animals, but have not distributed much food.

"The soldiers came once yesterday with food," said Daw Thay. They gave each person two cups of rice and said it had to last for the next seven days.