Chattanooga Engineer Waits To Hear If Family Hurt In Myanmar Cyclone

A Myanmar native reacts to a cyclone that's killed more than 10,000 people and the body toll continues to rise.

Tom Mon moved from Burma, now known as Myanmar, to Chattanooga sixteen years ago.

Mon says he was forced to leave the country because of it's oppressive dictatorship that's still in power today. His parents and his sister still live in Myanmar and after this cyclone he's not sure if they're dead or alive.

Heavy rains fall on Myanmar after a Cyclone swept through the largest country on the mainland of Southeast Asia.

The cyclone left more than a hundred thousand people homeless and more than 10 thousand dead.

"Those pictures are just what the news media can get to and maybe the actual scene will be more terrifying than what we can see on the paper," Tom Mon says.

Tom Mon left Myanmar, which he refers to as Burma, sixteen years ago, and now works as an engineer in Chattanooga. But Mon's parents and sister still live in Myanmar and are most likely in one of the current disaster zones.

"It's difficult to say wether they are in the destroyed area or if they're in that area or they impacted by the storm and if they are, are they still alive?" Mon asks.

Mon says the Myanmar military dictatorship, called Junta, keeps the country closed, and refuses to release factual information to the rest of the world.

"People are treated like animals by their own government hopefully international community will keep pressure on the government and try to help open up the country," Mon says.

And now Mon says he'd like to see the Myanmar government let international aid groups in so they can help the hundreds and thousands of cyclone victims, which could include members of his own family.

"It is hard but only time can tell whether or not they will be okay and I'm waiting for that time," Mon says.