As torrential rains flood South Asia, Irish missionary in Myanmar laments dramatic damage- Detroit Catholic

(OSV News) — More than 240 people were killed and millions displaced across South Asia as the intense monsoon season wreaked havoc in the region with torrential rains and severe floods, damaging buildings, infrastructure and crops.

According to The New York Times more than 100 people were killed in India alone, more than 100 died in Nepal and nearly 40 died in Afghanistan in recent weeks as of July 17.

Irish Columban missionary Father Eamon Sheridan works at the Rebirth Rehabilitation Center in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state in war-torn Northeastern Myanmar, helping men and women trapped in addiction amid the southeast Asian country’s drugs epidemic.

He was speaking to OSV News following recent flooding in Kachin state. As in other parts of South Asia, prolonged and torrential rain caused the huge Irrawaddy River to break its banks, spilling water into communities in low-lying areas of Myitkyina. Approximately 2,300 families or 11,000 individuals had to be evacuated to 36 evacuation centers according to ReliefWeb.

While the Irrawaddy has overflowed in peak monsoon seasons in the past, the flooding this time “was the worst in living memory,” 63-year-old Father Sheridan said. He believes it has been made worse by environmental damage and climate change.

“Most of the forests have been cut, which increases the water flow into the river, and what they call the ‘Ice Mountain’ in Putao is melting and so the flooding is getting worse,” the Irish missionary said, referring to a hill town nestled in the lap of the Himalayas.

When the flood water began to rise on July 1, almost 90 staff members and those they care for at the RRC retreated to the second floor of three buildings. “Communications were cut, there was no internet or phone line. It heightened our vulnerability,” Father Sheridan said.

“In the middle of the night I felt a bit afraid, the water was rising — would it stop?” the priest recalled thinking. “At about 1.30 a.m. I read the Gospel for Mass. It was the passage from Matthew 8, 23-27, where Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat while the storm rages, and the disciples thought the boat was sinking. ‘Don’t you care we are going to drown?’ they asked. My prayer to Jesus was with the full force of the disciples’ prayer. A great peace came over me. Somehow I knew everything would be ok,” Father Sheridan told OSV News.

The Diocese of Myitkyina’s emergency response team brought food and drinking water twice a day to the rehabilitation center, which had been set up by the diocese to tackle soaring addiction rates.

According to Father Sheridan, “It is no exaggeration to say that in every family here, one or two people are struggling with drug (or) alcohol addiction. This is made more difficult by the precarious political and economic situation in Myanmar,” he said.

The people the RRC assists, he said, were “extraordinary” in their response to the flooding. “While it was a difficult situation, there was a great sense of unity in our center as together we sought to save as much as we could.”

When the water receded, what remained was, according to the priest, a soggy mass of muck and debris. The priest listed some of the damage at the center: the fence around the property was damaged and will have to be replaced; the generator was covered by the water and is beyond repair; the wooden wardrobes in the dormitories were destroyed and some of the desks in the office will have to be replaced.

In the aftermath of the flooding, basic foodstuffs like vegetables, meat and rice have risen sharply in price, Father Sheridan said.

The RRC’s recovery program offers new life to those caught in addiction to heroin. The RRC is the only residential treatment center in Myitkyina offering the 12-step programs of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. It is the only center with a residential facility for women.

The flooding brought only short-lived respite from Myanmar’s ongoing insurgency in Kachin state, which escalated in the wake of the military coup of 2021.

On July 2 at night, only a day after the heaviest flooding, “heavy weapons started firing again and we prayed for peace and protection from the escalating war,” the missionary said of weapons stationed not far from the center, “and when they are fired the noise is loud and frightening. Those in our center — with families living across the river — wonder if their families are safe.”

“The ongoing violence in Myanmar is a threat to everybody. It is constantly on the minds of everyone in our center and everybody I meet in Myitkyina,” he said.

The army overthrew Myanmar’s elected government on Feb. 1, 2021. The Associated Press reported that a poorly armed grassroots resistance movement became active in 2024, and military air strikes on villages have increased and civilian casualties have grown, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, and Myanmar Witness, a project headquartered in Britain. The United Nations said 18.6 million in Myanmar are in need right now of humanitarian aid.

As a result of the conflict, millions of people have had to leave their homes and are now living in camps for internally displaced people. Many of these camps are in churches of various denominations and are supported by international aid organizations.

“The church plays an important role in society in Kachinland. It seeks peace in the midst of a very violent situation. How this will end, nobody knows. But we are praying that the war doesn’t come to the city of Myitkyina,” Father Sheridan said.