Cyclone alters Yangon's tree-lined streets

YANGON (Reuters) - The shady streets of Yangon, one of Asia's greenest cities, could have been changed forever by Cyclone Nargis, which knocked down many of its 100-year-old trees.

People in Myanmar's biggest city fear the storm's 190 kph (120 mph) winds not only took lives but also ruined livelihoods, dealing a blow to an already fragile tourism industry.

"This was such a beautiful city, but no more," said Kyaw Win, standing by his house next to Kandawgi Lake surveying fallen trees mangled with electricity pylons.

"And after the trees fell, it's so hot."

One week after the cyclone tore through the low-lying Irrawaddy delta and into Yangon, residents and maroon-robed monks are still chopping and sawing tree trunks along the side of roads, with some splayed roots as big as cars.

Huge tree trunks form a natural roadblock in front of the army blockade on the approach to Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside house, where the pro-democracy leader is detained.

Across the river from the city centre, monks sell chopped logs at two for $1 because they are not receiving the usual donations from locals who are struggling to rebuild their homes.

Yangon's people are not short of firewood.

The storm stripped the former capital of about one third of its biggest trees, but the military government has only just started to send soldiers to help clear up the debris.