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Myanmar cyclone death count may reach 10,000
DarkCrawler
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Currently at 4,000....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7384041.stm
This morning the paper said 350...that would have been bad enough, but this is pretty huge.
Burma's storm toll 'nears 4,000'
The death toll from a devastating cyclone that hit western Burma on Saturday has now climbed to 3,939 people, state television says.
All those deaths were recorded in Rangoon and Irrawaddy, only two of five regions declared disaster zones.
Many more are feared dead in devastated outlying regions not yet reached by authorities or aid agencies.
A member of the ruling junta told diplomats in Rangoon that the final toll could reach 10,000.
Many thousands of survivors are lacking shelter, drinking water, power and communications.
In the past, the Burmese authorities have treated foreign aid with some suspicion but this time the junta that rules Burma has accepted offers of international help, and aid shipments are now being prepared.
Toll multiplies
Nargis hit the south-east Asian country on Saturday with wind speeds reaching 190km/h (120mph).
Earlier on Monday, the death toll was put at a minimum of 351, but later reports from state media vastly increased the known death toll more than 10-fold.
A further 2,879 people were missing and 41 injured.
In addition to those known to have been killed in Rangoon and Irrawaddy, thousands more people may have died in the towns of Bogalay and Laputta, in Irrawaddy, according to the report on state TV.
None of the figures have been independently confirmed.
The BBC is not permitted to report from Burma, also known as Myanmar.
Houses 'skeletal'
But reports from the storm-hit region say thousands of buildings have been flattened, power lines downed, trees uprooted, roads blocked and water supplies disrupted.
Footage of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nagris
A Rangoon resident who spoke to relatives in Laputta has told BBC Burmese that 75% to 80% of the town was destroyed.
He said houses along the coast had been reduced to skeletal structures while, further along the coast, 16 villages had been virtually wiped out.
No help had yet reached Laputta, he said.
Pictures on state TV showed security services working to clear roads to allow help through, but in Rangoon and elsewhere there were complaints that the response to the disaster was weak.
"Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year," a retired government worker complained to Reuters news agency.
He was referring to protests led by Buddhist monks last year that were quickly put down.
Earlier, a BBC journalist monitoring the situation in Burma from Bangkok, Soe Win, said the shortages of power and water were particularly critical.
"What [people] are saying is that if the situation continues for another two or three days, that will be really, really difficult for them," he said.
Aid assessment
UN disaster response official Richard Horsey confirmed that several hundred thousand people were in need of shelter and clean drinking water.
However, he said it was impossible to tell exactly how many people had been affected because of damage to the roads and telephone systems.
The UN and international aid agencies have sent assessment teams to the worst-hit areas and shipments are being prepared as more offers of help come in.
Aid agencies had brought some emergency supplies into Burma ahead of the cyclone season - but nowhere near enough to cope with the devastation inflicted by Cyclone Nargis.
Thailand has announced it is flying in a transport plane loaded with nine tonnes of food and medicines.
Meanwhile, India says it is dispatching two naval ships carrying food, tents, blankets, clothing, and medicines immediately from Port Blair.
In a statement, the military junta said a referendum on a proposed new national constitution scheduled for next Saturday would still go ahead, insisting Burmese people were "eagerly looking forward to voting".
If the death toll of nearly 4,000 is confirmed, Tropical Cyclone Nargis would be the world's deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India, which killed up to 10,000 people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7384041.stm
This morning the paper said 350...that would have been bad enough, but this is pretty huge.
DarkCrawler on
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Seems with this, and the boxing day tsunami a couple of years back that there really should be a dedicated storm charity, or at least more of an effort made to prevent this sort of thing.
God is punishing them for letting non-believers march in the street. Plus, I've heard that Buddhist monks are totally gay.
We really need to get a world wide setup with tsunami and hurricane warning systems letting every coastal nation know what the hell is going on and let them send up the alarm asap. I wonder how many of the thousands could have been avoided with a proper alert/evacuation systems and better building codes in place.
Because the US is so very good at reacting to massive storm damage.
I appreciate that she has a long standing interest in Myanmar, I just think the criticism is pathetically ironic in light of the mess on the Gulf Coast that is still ongoing.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/myanmar.relief/index.html
I can think of a few thousand South East Asian residents who'd say that we do. Also, I'm not aware of massive flooding in Burma preventing aid workers from moving around. Are you reading differently?
Well, the US wasn't sitting on its hand and denying access to the relief teams it was screaming for. It just used what it had in a pathetic fashion.
Okay, I made that last one up. You could also go buy 3 bags of rice from Costco then ship it out there.
Yeah, sometimes the aftermath is the scariest part. It's hard to wrap your mind around that level of destruction.
I thought Red Cross was international? Given what I've been hearing, it sounds like food, water and medical supplies are the first focus.
Building codes?
This is myanmar dude. They need alot to change before anything like building codes can be put in place.
but they're listening to every word I say
They've had a military junta enforcing control for decades. I don't see how that renders strong building codes to resist hurrican force winds and tidal events implausible. Improved infrastructure, perhaps, but look at Cuba and their response system to hurricanes in the gulf.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7385662.stm
I don't know if it's accurate to compare Cuba to Myanmar.
I cannot even comprehend the magnitude of such a number.
I'm still trying to grasp the number of deaths in the 2004 tsunami.
Jesus, this came out of nowhere.
The stories about Myanmar always get to me. The Buddhist monk protest being brutally put down was hard enough for me to take. This is just so sad. Just over a year ago I was within a few miles of the border, but didn't think to cross it. I've regretted it since then.
Christ, what a clusterfuck.
Hey don't look at me I was riding a horse until two years ago.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
I read an article on CNN about they're just throwing the bodies into the rivers, so they can be swept out to sea before they really start to rot. They just don't have any place to put them. It's both an unfortunate and realistic assertion to make, that the number hasn't climbed nearly as high as it's going to. A horrendous shame, those poor people.
Before and after images from NASA's Terra satellite.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Does it hurt to distort things that much?
From what I've heard and read lately, the monks and nuns are doing a lot of the work (though state media only portrays the efforts of the army, which are apparently completely inadequate). This might do a lot to further weaken any support the junta has - or more importantly, weaken any notion that it was powerful and in control.
Result: the junta confiscated the aid packages. The UN has, as a result, halted the flights.
Oh, and Myanmar's chosen tomorrow as the day to hold a referendum on a new constitution. (Buried pretty deep in the article.)
Okay, yeah, fuck state sovreignity. Just get in there and do something. Junta's had their chance to make nice, they blew it, now I say diplomacy takes a back seat to humanitarianism. How many friends does Myanmar have down there anyway?
China