http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/06/myanmar.cyclone/index.html

The government-run radio station said Tuesday that 22,464 are confirmed dead and 41,000 are missing, and the United Nations says that up to 1 million could be homeless.

CNN's Dan Rivers is the first Western journalist to reach Bogalay township, where China's state-run Xinhua news agency says 10,000 died. He reported miserable conditions.

Rivers said that bodies were being dropped into rivers and that survivors had only small amounts of eggs and rice. The area's rice mills are destroyed, leaving Bogalay with a five-day supply. Water pumps were also ruined, and fuel was scarce.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet.

I'm not familiar with the specific numbers. How does this compare to the tsunami a few years ago? It seems very bad.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea (subduction) earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet). It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit.



Hard to say but a lot of people died during that.

The government is so backwards there they are having a hard time letting anyone in to help. Sad really.

I was really impressed with Laura Bush at the press conference yesterday addressing this tragedy; it is almost unprecedented for the first lady to be the one at the podium in a matter like this, and discussing possible policy matters.

Each news report I have heard has given a differing death toll, which only serves to magnify the difficulty in getting information from such a closed society under a brutal regime. The last report I heard was 20k+ dead so far, and the military junta is still balking at allowing foreign aid into the country.

This could indeed rival the tsunami, not in the number of dead but in the scope of tragedy to those citizens of the country formerly known as Burma.

No doubt many in the country are going to believe the Government has brought divine retribution on themselves for their treatment of the religious orders throughout the state. Indeed I've already read this somewhere.
Which goes hand in hand by many people complaining that troops and government officials were everywhere when the people were protesting, but they aren't anywhere to be seen in the middle of disaster.

Prayers are with the people of Lower Burma.

It's getting even sadder when you hear the junta reminding Birman people to not forget the referendum vote next saturday!

Can you be more willing to lock your country to the international communauty that you "forget" your own people?

I want to say that death toll from the tsunami was like astronmical like 50k maybe? But, I could totally be wrong. To think that many people can die in such a short time frame is hard to wrap your head around.

There are just over 184,000 confirmed deaths from the 2004 Tsunami.

There are just over 184,000 confirmed deaths from the 2004 Tsunami.

and, of course, the real count is much much higher, with the ensuing starvation and so forth, and lets not even mention the (almost definately) large mass of aboriginal tribes that pretty much got wiped out.

Hence the usage of the word 'confirmed' in my post.

Hence the usage of the word 'confirmed' in my post.

yes, im not disagreeing with you, merely adding =D

The sick part is that it is near impossible to get a visa to get into the country to provide aid, so those who wish to help ... can't

from what ive read the regime has greenlighted aid organized by the UN kelraz

The last report on MSNBC earlier was that they have now raised the "speculative" death toll to be in excess of 100,000. That is a huge jump from the earlier report of approx 24k.

wow, I was way off in my number of 50k I just knew it was allot. 184k? wow, that's like the size of my town.

More fun from the Junta: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080509/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_cyclone

This is completely unacceptable in the modern world.

Oh no, don't worry. It's fine.

We'll let them get away with much worse.

Do they have any oil?

Actually yes, but it's mostly got a shit load of gas reserves.

I know - how have we not already occupied it?

I've got a guess, though. It's neighbours are big, scary, and wouldn't let us step a foot on Burmese soil.

The situation there with their gov.'t is absolutely terrible and completely unacceptable. What's an example of true evil? Deliberately allowing the death of even your own people when help has been offered with open arms! Seizing supplies needed more than anything else in the world!

May the blood of those innocent lives be upon the heads of those responsible for this mess.

Perfect time for an all out 100% uprising against the government. Yea it would get bad, but could it really get any worse for those people? Someone tell them they are not living in hell.

They , the powers that be there, keep seizing the aide meant to help the people ;(

This is a sad time indeed.

Even more fun : http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/monde/asie/0,,3844831,00-television-parle-que-referendum-.html

You just need to watch the first seconds of the video, the speaker explains that television there only talks about the referendum, who cares about 100.000 dead?

Disgusting.

Wow... just wow :(

Seems there are many countries in the region with the ability to "encourage" the junta to change direction. That they are not speaks loudly of their own motivations, and attitudes toward the "people".

Regime change has never seemed so inviting. Anyone got a couple cruise missiles laying around? :cool:

http://www.twincities.com/ci_9213544?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

http://www.twincities.com/ci_9213546?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com


Today's reports on the tragic events in Burma. If the U.N. does not want to completely abdicate it's mission, it better get it's ass in gear and make some decisions, and follow through.