Devastated Myanmar warned of new cyclone

Source: MSNBC

YANGON, Myanmar - The first international aid official allowed into the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta by Myanmar's military leaders described towns rendered unrecognizable, thousands of survivors without shelter in heavy rains and local volunteers saving lives.

Bad weather has contributed to the suffering of survivors and hampered rescue efforts since the May 3 storm, and the Joint Typhoon Warning center said Wednesday another cyclone was forming in the region.

Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the United Nations humanitarian relief program, couldn't say where the landfall would be or when it would become a full-fledged cyclone. But she said the chances of another cyclone were good.

Soldiers have barred foreign aid workers from reaching survivors in the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, but gave access to an International Red Cross representative who returned to Yangon on Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24607348/

Lets convert to solar and wind asap so we won't have this on our conscience.

non sequitur much?

BTW - Free Mumia!

:eyes:

global climate change and the increased incidence and intensity of cyclone/hurricane activity. So it isn't truly a non sequitur, but rather a tangent relating to rising and warming seas. Whether or not you agree w/ the hypothesis it's a worthy turn for the discussions to take, I think.

Here's the Union of Concerned Scientists web page on the topic:

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/hurricanes-and-climate-change.html

The people of Bangladesh have a bad habit of inhabiting the sand spits in the Brahmaputra River delta, and other coastal regions. It's not their fault: population is high and waterfront property there is dirt cheap, because the dirt tends to wash out from under the people who live there. Every once in a while, a cyclone rolls through and drowns hundreds of thousands of people. A further twenty million are at risk of starvation should flooding be widespread and prolonged. Furthermore, Kolkata and its enormous population are right next door. That's a disaster which would make poor Myanmar's plight pale by comparison.

At this point the Irawaddy delta is (hopefully) already largely evacuated, and while adding insult to injury, a second cyclone would be blessedly low in fatalities compared to a cyclone leveling Bangladesh and eastern India.