Myanmar Disaster emergencies NARGIS - Damage was estimated at over $10 billion (USD),

Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia or Indochina. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest with the Andaman Sea defining its southern periphery. One-third of Burma's total perimeter, 1,930 kilometres (1,199 mi), forms an uninterrupted coastline. Cyclone Nargis also known as Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis, was a strong tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Burma (officially known as Myanmar).

The cyclone made landfall in the country on May 2, 2008, causing catastrophic destruction and at least 146,000 fatalities with thousands more people still missing. The Labutta Township alone was reported to have 80,000 dead, with about 10,000 more deaths in Bogale. There were around 55,000 people missing and many other deaths were found in other towns and areas, although the Burmese government's official death toll was grossly underreported as they had simply stopped counting the dead to minimize political fallout. It was feared and quite possible that due to lack of relief efforts, a total of a million people already had or would have died from this catastrophe. Damage was estimated at over $10 billion (USD), which made it the most damaging cyclone ever recorded in this basin. Nargis is the deadliest named cyclone in the North Indian Ocean Basin, as well as the second deadliest named cyclone of all time, behind Typhoon Nina of 1975. Including unnamed storms like the 1970 Bhola cyclone, Nargis is the 8th deadliest cyclone of all time, but an uncertainty between the deaths caused by Nargis and those caused by other cyclones (like the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone), could put Nargis as 7th deadliest or higher, because the exact death toll is unknown. Nargis was the first tropical cyclone to strike the country since Cyclone Mala made landfall in 2006, which was slightly stronger, but had a significantly lower impact. Relief efforts were slowed for political reasons as Burma's military rulers initially resisted aid. U.S. President George W. Bush said that an angry world should condemn the way Burma's military rulers were handling the aftermath of a catastrophic cyclone. Burma's ruling party finally accepted aid a few days after India's request was accepted. Continued hampering of relief efforts was the fact that only ten days after the cyclone nearby central China was hit by a massive earthquake, known as the Sichuan earthquake which measured 7.9 in magnitude and it alone had taken 87,476 lives, and caused 85 billion dollars in damage (USD), making it the costliest disaster in Chinese history and third costliest disaster worldwide. Furthermore, some donated aid items were found to be available in the country's black market, and Myanmar's junta warned on May 15 that legal action would be taken against people who traded or hoarded international aid. The cyclone name "Nargis" is an Urdu word meaning daffodil; the word has its roots in the Persian name Nargess, which has the same meaning.The first named storm of the 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Nargis developed on April 27 in the central area of Bay of Bengal. Initially it tracked slowly northwestward and, encountering favorable conditions, it quickly strengthened. Dry air weakened the cyclone on April 29, though after beginning a steady eastward motion Nargis rapidly intensified to attain peak winds of at least 165 km/h (105 mph) on May 2 according to IMD observations; the JTWC assessed peak winds of 215 km/h (135 mph), making it a weak Category 4 cyclone on the SSHS. The cyclone moved ashore in the Ayeyarwady Division of Burma at peak intensity and, after passing near the major city of Yangon (Rangoon), the storm gradually weakened until dissipating near the border of Burma and Thailand.


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Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis

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