Over 63,000 people forced from homes after Myanmar dam breach floods 85 villages

As many as 85 villages were flooded in Myanmar after a dam failed, unleashing waters that blocked a major highway and forced more than 63,000 people from their homes, Reuters reported. Firefighters, troops and officials launched a rescue effort on Wednesday after the spillway of an irrigation dam burst at Swar creek in central Myanmar, sending a torrent of water through villages and the nearby towns of Swar and Yedashe. By Thursday morning the water was receding, but two people remained missing and were feared to have been washed away, according to Min Thu, deputy administrator of Yedashe. “People whose villages are on higher ground are preparing to go back to their villages,” he said. Traffic between Myanmar’s major cities of Yangon and Mandalay and the capital, Naypyidaw, was disrupted after the flooding damaged a bridge on the highway linking the cities.