The cyclone ripped across the Irrawaddy Delta, 270 miles (435 kilometres) south of the capital Naypyidaw, wiping away entire villages and seriously damaging important trading towns, including Myanmar’s main city Yangon.

More than 138,000 people are dead or missing, while homes, roads, bridges and schools have been destroyed.

Before the storm, Naypyidaw was filled with construction crews as the military embarked on ambitious building projects for their new capital, which they call “the abode of kings.”

Now, many of the workers have left to take new jobs in the Irrawaddy — a swampy region a world away from the scrubby highlands where they had been working.

“The construction workers from Naypyidaw sites will work at tower foundations for electricity projects, as the Irrawaddy Delta needs electricity first,” said Moe Moe, a 32-year-old manager for a construction firm based in Yangon.

“Later, the workers will also work on renovating schools and building projects,” she told AFP. “Meanwhile, some construction is also continuing in Naypyidaw.”

Naypyidaw was built in secret, known only through rumours until the military regime abruptly ordered the government to move here at the crack of dawn on November 7, 2005, a moment deemed auspicious by the generals’ top astrologers.

At the time, construction crews were everywhere. The city had no schools, no clinics, few phone lines — not even a grocery store.

In the years since, neatly organised hotels, apartment blocks, and government offices have sprung up.

A new six-lane highway to link the country’s main cities of Yangon and Mandalay is more than half finished. It will slash the travelling time to Naypyidaw, which lies roughly between the two.

Electricity here runs 24 hours a day — an unthinkable luxury elsewhere in Myanmar — and the generals have even opened a sprawling new zoo, although tourists are not allowed to visit the city.

Construction workers have been the backbone of the rapidly evolving city. Now that many of them are in the delta, residents say business is sagging and the remaining building sites sit idle.

“My sales have dropped about 50 percent because so many construction sites here moved to the delta after Cyclone Nargis. Many construction workers have moved there too, following their company’s jobs,” Maung Maung, 24, a shopkeeper in Naypyidaw’s Myoma market told AFP.

“I feel sorry for those who lost everything. But we are also dealing with the consequences,” he said.

A hotel manager said many businessmen had also left the capital for the delta, where the government is encouraging them to make donations to cyclone-hit communities.

“Many construction sites moved there, and also many businessmen went to the delta to help people with donations,” he said.

“People here felt very sorry about the storm. Some also lost their relatives in the delta,” he added.

One government official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the regime expects the rebuilding to take at least two years.

“The leadership is trying to budget money for rehabilitation projects in the delta. We will have to work at least two years for the delta to get back to a normal, pre-Nargis situation,” the official said.

Poor villagers are still arriving in Naypyidaw in hopes of finding work, but some say they have been discouraged that so many jobs have moved south.

“I came here 20 days ago with my three children to find a job. I have to work from dawn to evening. It’s very difficult to find a job in my village,” said 53-year-old Khin Win.

She and two of her children each earn 1,500 kyats (1.30 dollars) a day clearing duckweed from an artificial pond created along a Naypyidaw road. She had hoped to find better-paid work.

“I have decided to stay here at least three months. We will try to find a better job here to get more money. Otherwise, we will go back to my village. New jobs are also difficult to find here,” she said.