Ghosts of the cyclone haunt survivors, soldiers (so sad)

Maung Myint was asleep on the floor of a monastery when he heard his wife call his name. He had spent two days searching for her near Kun Chan Kone town, in the heart of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta, after the deadly tidal surge swept through on May 2-3. He woke up sweaty, in the middle of the night, and saw a blur at the gate. "Ma Tin Mya ... Ma Tin Mya," he called, repeating her name. "I'm here. I've been looking for you the whole day. Come here, come here." But the apparition was gone. Maung Myint could only hear dogs barking.

Yet what happened was clear enough to Maung Myint: The spirit of his wife had returned to deliver the news that she was dead. "Had my wife not visited me that night," he recalled, "I'd have looked for her everywhere until now, expecting she'd be still alive somewhere."

Two weeks after Cyclone Nargis pummeled Myanmar, ghost stories are playing out across the Irrawaddy Delta, where at least 100,000 people are believed dead, according to the United Nations and various international agencies. Sometimes the ghosts carry a message or a warning. Often it is just to let their loved ones know that they are gone for good....(more@link)