Myanmar / TC NARGIS (TC 01B) Update: 84,500 dead

[hurricanetrack]

It seems that the death toll from the weekend cyclone that struck Myanmar is rising to absurd levels. My question is that: what is the cause of all the deaths? Storm surge? It am not seeing the cause mentioned. I assume it is surge since Myanmar is in the NE corner of the Bay of Bengal. Any insight from you all on this tragic event would be helpful.

[RL3AO]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14813


EDIT: Whoops. Someone already posted it.

[HURAKAN]

Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons

Code: Select all

Death Toll  ↓    Event  ↓    Location  ↓    Date  ↓
500,000 500,000    Bhola cyclone    Bangladesh    1970
300,000 300,000    1839 Coringa cyclone    India    1839
300,000 300,000    cyclone    Vietnam    1881
300,000 300,000[1]    1737 Calcutta cyclone    India    1737
229,000 229,000    Super Typhoon Nina - contributed to Banqiao Dam failure    China    1975
200,000 200,000[2]    1876 Bengal cyclone    present day Bangladesh    1876
138,866 138,866    1991 Bangladesh cyclone    Bangladesh    1991
060,000 60,000    1922 Swatow Typhoon    China    1922
060,000 60,000    1864 Calcutta cyclone    India    1864
050,000 50,000    1912 Wenzhou typhoon    China    1912
040,000 40,000    1942 Bengal Calcutta cyclone    India    1942
015,000 22,464+    Tropical Cyclone Nargis    Myanmar    2008

Nargis becomes the 12th deadliest cyclone in history.

[CrazyC83]

This is like 12 Katrinas now...

[cycloneye]

50,000+

More very sad news.HURAKAN,now up to ten.

[Chacor]

Somehow, CNN have managed to get a correspondent into Burma, into Bogalay to be precise. CNN says he described seeing houses flattened for 35 km. The minister is saying 95% of homes in Bogalay (pop. 190,000) had been destroyed.

[Chacor]

That's a "fear", not a confirmed report. The official confirmed toll right now is still 22,000+. Until it's confirmed, it's not a wise idea to say 50,000 dead in the topic title.

[StormspinnerD2]

50,000+ deaths are feared, that's not the actual report. The latest number was at least 22,464.

Also, Hello32020 posted that already.

[senorpepr]

Reports coming in that a minister is saying most of the deaths were caused by a 12-foot tidal surge.

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=100816&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=360

[Typhoon Hunter]

Wikipedia have an article running on Nargis at the moment. The before and after satellite shots show that VAST areas have been innundated by the storm surge and thus killed tens of thousands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Nargis

[Typhoon Hunter]

Looking at those before and after pics posted below the area of flooding is insane and I guess responsible for the majority of deaths. Surely the angle of landfall has huge spread floods over a larger length of coasline. The area east of Yangon from Pegu to Moulmein looks underwater. Correct me if I'm wrong but this would not have happened if Nargis had made landfall at a right angle at the mouths of the Irrawaddy?

[hurricanetrack]

Excellent information. Not a catastrophic surge in terms of height, Katrina was double that is many areas. Yet we hear that scores of people are gone. What went wrong? How can this still happen in such a modern age?

[Derek Ortt]

the whole coastline may not have been flooded, but had it struck at a right angle, the surge almost certainly would have been over 20 feet instead of 12 feet and stronger winds may have been felt in Rangoon

[Derek Ortt]

may have been a combination of the two.

I wonder if many people tried to seek shelter in the upper portions of their structures outside of the surge only to have those parts blown away. The same thing would have happened had Katrina not been severely sheared at the time of landfall

[RL3AO]

It sounds like the impact on rice crops was really bad.

[somethingfunny]

Also remember that Myanmar's rulers never issued warnings of the storm's impending landfall so millions of people who might have evacuated a similar storm in another country were unaware of the danger

Most of the responsibility falls on the junta, but remember that even if they had issued a timely warning and ordered an evacuation of the coast.....if Myanmar's military rulers ordered YOU to leave your home and get on a transport headed inland....what would you have done? Except for the lucky few with black-market sattelite connections who could have seen the (surprisingly adequate) forecasts coming from India's IMD....anybody in their right mind would have taken their chances with the cyclone given the choice, I imagine.

[senorpepr]

It sounds like the impact on rice crops was really bad.

I was thinking about this yesterday. There has already been an impact to the jasmine rice production in this part of the world. After Nargis, rice prices are bound to rise even further, especially impacting the markets in SE and E Asia.

[Rachell]

sorry to hear that

However, it's the time for them to wake up, the week CYCLONE and TIDE protection is to be blamed.The condition will be better if NARGIS made landfall in other places such as CHINA- -At least the number of death won't be so ridiculous

[KWT]

Wow this is truely turning into a shocking disaster, 50,000 deaths sadly probably is realistic and to think like Derek said it could have been even worse in terms of impact.

[HURAKAN]

We can clearly say that this has been the deadliest cyclone since the 1991 Bangladesh Cyclone.