22,500 dead 41,000 missing - the numbers are staggering!!!

[FourScore]

Burma Disaster: The Wind of Change
by Andrew Buncombe

The numbers continue to soar. Officials today raised the estimated death toll from Burma’s devastating storm to nearly 22,500. But no one really knows how high the figure could rise when the full horror of Cyclone Nargis’s destruction is made clear.

The secretive military junta that has ruled the impoverished nation for two decades took the unprecedented step yesterday of issuing an urgent appeal for international help.

Earlier in the day, state-controlled media said that close to 4,000 people were known to have died and 3,000 were missing. That death toll rose later to 10,000 and state television today said that figure was now nearly 22,500 and that a further 41,000 people are missing.

Aid agencies, struggling to assess the full extent of the damage caused by the category 3 storm that swept the country at the weekend, were preparing last night to send urgent supplies of food, water and medicine. “We have received a long list of things that are needed, including shelter material, food, water-purification stuff, tarpaulins and things like that,” said Carsten Voelz, the operations manager for the charity Care. “Given the scale of what has happened, we would certainly have to beef up our personnel that are in the country.”

What has made the challenge for international organisations even tougher is that power and communications appear to be all but out, even in the country’s largest city, Rangoon. Some of Burma’s towns, especially those in the area close to the Irrawaddy delta, appear to have been virtually flattened. The result has been an already desperately poor population scrabbling for survival.

“How many people are affected? We know that it’s in the six figures,” Richard Horsey, of the UN disaster office in neighbouring Thailand, told Reuters. “We know that it’s several hundred thousand needing shelter and clean drinking water, but how many hundred thousand we just don’t know...”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-disaster-the-wind-of-change-821590.html

[RL3AO]

1. Nargis is now the 12th deadliest tropical cyclone and deadliest since 1991.

[uppityperson]

2. k&r for the Burmese citizens.

[Shoelace]

3. oh my God, I hadn't heard that! It was a Category 4 cyclone

it was bad enough when they said 10,000. Last night, I saw some footage on CNN and other newsies, of the damage to several cities. It looked like most buildings had no roofs, most trees (except for palm trees - they always seem to survive anything) were down and all streets were flooded.

Prayers to those affected by this cyclone and we should expect to see more of these deadly cyclones with global climate change heating up the oceans.

Warmer sea temps = stronger cyclones, hurricanes, more tornadic activity, etc.

Wikipedia has a page on this cyclone now. Some before, after pics too.

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

[RL3AO]

4. "Warmer sea temps = stronger cyclones, hurricanes, more tornadic activity, etc."

While warmer waters will cause more storms, the Bay of Bengal is colder than normal right now.



Also, I believe (aka its only my opinion) that global warming will have very little effects on increased tornadic activity. But thats another discussion.

[Shoelace]

5. SST anomalies are always colder after a cyclone

at least that's been my observation over the 8 years that I've been watching SST anomalies. This cyclone hovered over the Indian ocean for days before making landfall. Couple that with the enormous amounts of freshening by the huge rain amounts and voila, SSTs cool rapidly.
I saw it after Hurricane Katrina in the GOM and the Bangledesh cyclone that killed so many (SSTs really cooled rapidly after that cyclone), and it's often visible even after flood events.

For some darned reason, I can't access my global SST anomaly site to compare but if you can, do go back to about April 24th on to see if this is correct.

Also, re; tornadoes and and their relation to global climate change comes this from a study done last year by NASA:

Climate models have long predicted that severe storms and other extreme weather will become more frequent and intense as global warming pumps more energy into the atmosphere.

But scientists have shied away about making predictions about the smaller weather events, like tornadoes and thunderstorms, because local weather conditions are so variable and hard to tie to larger climate trends.

No more is that the case, as a new NASA study shows, according to an AP story today. One consequence of a warmer climate is a greater chance of updrafts, the precursor to thunderstorms and tornadoes, according to the NASA research. More updrafts + more heat energy = more intense and frequent storms.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/6083

Last night, fyi, the weather channel had graphs to show that there are nearly twice as many tornadoes this year so far as the 10 year average! Naturally, one year does not a trend make but it bears watching.

Sorry for being so wordy but I'm a weather geek so I should probably use the "weather forum" for this stuff. Still, it's a welcome relief to talk of weather and not politics for a change.

[Shoelace]

8. SSTs were definitely warmer on April 28th than now

take a look and compare. It always amazes me how this works. Must be pretty shallow seas there?

May 5th




April 28th

[KoKo]

11. Thanks for all that info....it's good to read the observations.. n/t

[Marrah_G]

6. How incredibly sad

These stories always bring tears to my eyes. Logically I know that we will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature, but it still is so hard to wrap your brain around that much destruction.

[bdamomma]

7. what a terrible disaster.

George Bush is telling the Burmese government please accept help from the US, hmm.........would you?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7385662.stm

[arikara]

9. That's a horrible disaster for those people...

I can't think that the US will do much for them given how they handled Katrina. Better that they allow Cuba to help.

[Disturbed]

10. If this had happened in the US there would be 24/7 Coverage.

All TV channels would be covering this all day & night.

[DS1]

12. Is Rev. Wright among the missing? We'll be back with that and more

as we follow this breaking story!

[Zywiec]

13. You are joking of course, right?

How would Cuba send any aid to Myanmar? What type of global reach do they have?

Maybe you should read up on some of the support the US Navy was able to provide that area after the tsunami of 2004.

[reggie the dog]

14. let's see if the help gets there before day 5

Wouldn't that be ironic