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

[dizzyfish]

State-run TV is now reporting over 3,900 deaths with over 2,000 missing.

Edit: BBC World Service: reports that in one city alone, nearly 10,000 are dead - unconfirmed reports and cannot be verified.

Oh lord, I sure hope someone is exaggerating. That number is unbelievable.

[CycloneNL]

Wow 4.000 deaths

But what is this ?

[Chacor]

That's a test system.

[HURAKAN]

Wow 4.000 deaths

But what is this ?

[url]http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/images/W.png
[/url]

Welcome to S2K. It's out of topic but Kadena is an artificial typhoon created by JTWC in an exercise.

http://metocph.nmci.navy.mil/cgi-bin/abpwcreate.cgi

[CycloneNL]

Oh okee.. thnx

[Pedro Fernández]

4000 deaths... oh my God............

In Spain, yesterday was the first time a new about this disaster was showed on TV... And also yesterday, it was quite difficult to find news about that on Internet...

[senorpepr]

It has gone from NRL, why not move the thread to the archive?

We'll wait a few days until some of the breaking news action dies down.

[Chacor]

"In addition to those known to have been killed in Rangoon and Irrawaddy, tens of thousands more people may have died in the towns of Bogalay and Laputta, in Irrawaddy, according to the report on state TV.

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."

[combellack]

BBc is now reporting at least 10,000 dead and that number is expected to climb. What a nightmare
Mark

[Typhoon Hunter]

This is horrendous. I really hope the aid agencies can get in as soon as possible and their work not be hindered by the junta.

I also think it's inappropriate to criticize victims of Nargis whose selected quotes have appeared in the media.

[Derek Ortt]

The Myanmar government is now confirming MORE than 10,000

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html

worst cyclone since the 1991 Bahgladesh, even worse than the Orissa Cyclone that devastated India

[Duddy]

Oh my Lord! I hope that number isn't true!

[KWT]

thats shocking, turely unbelievable but then again sadly thats what you get for what was likely a system that at least a bottom end Cat-4 hits such an area...

[HURAKAN]

It's shocking but not unexpected. Nargis was very powerful, moved rather slowly, and impacted a very poor country and the most populated part of the country. You mix these things and you get more than 10,000 deaths.

[HurricaneRobert]

Also because it held its structure well after landfall.

[RL3AO]

First time on the internet today. I just saw the 5 digit death toll for the first time. So so sad.

[cycloneye]

Also the angle that the cyclone tracked when it made the approach for landfall was the cause for the big storm surge that they had.

[Cyclenall]

How many thought over 10,000 would die? People were expecting Cyclone Sidr to kill over that and it didn't. Then this one forms and some think it would kill 100s - 1000s and it may have killed over 15,000. It's always unexpected like this.

Triple the death toll that Cyclone Sidr had, less people are talking about Nargis then that one. What is going on here?

- It's the first time I saw a 5 digit death toll on a TC I tracked
- First time to reach over 10,000 deaths in a TC this year, decade, century and millennium
- Deadliest TC ever for Myanmar I assume
- One of the deadliest ever? (It's behind the Great Atlantic Hurricane and the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone)

I did the math and approximately 0.027% of the population of Myanmar died in Cyclone Nargis.

The Wikipedia article needs more stats on how this compares to previous cyclones with regard to death toll. Is there a top 10 list?

[Sanibel]

This one caught us by surprise. Media now catching up on extent of disaster. Strong category three with Bay Of Bengal effect surge on Irrawaddy Delta. Major surge disaster with 10,000 death toll and climbing.

Rangoon airport clocked 140mph gusts at peak of storm.

[A1A]

Did the path go along that penisula?