What happened in the Burma Cyclone?

Question

Can anyone tell me very detailed or find me an article about exactly what happened in the Burma cyclone? I have to write a powerpoint about it, and I don't really know what happened. When did it happen etc.

Answer 1

It's an important issue that's only escalating. Several days ago, Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar (Burma) and utterly destroyed much of the country. So far the death toll is at 22,500 people, but it's feared that almost 100,000 people died.

Burma is ruled by an oppressive military government that overthrew Burma's true government in a coup a few years ago. Many of the people in Burma are poor and live in small, rural villages. Burma's government is very reclusive, so for several days they completely denied aid from other countries, and left their people to starve. Now they are accepting limited aid, but they won't let international aid workers into the country. Instead they are letting inexperienced soldiers pass out the aid, which they have plastered in government labels to make it seem like they are not taking aid from other countries. They're trying to trick the Burmese into believing that none of this aid is international.

Because of the poor response, hundreds of thousands of Burmese are homeless and without food, clean water, or shelter. It's feared that diseases will soon begin to spread and kill even more.

Links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/ar...

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8805

Answer 2

As if the situation isn't bad enough, thousands of more people are going to starve to death if the Burmese government doesn't start allowing aid for it's own people.

Answer 3

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2... hope this helps!

Answer 4

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8805