Why were so many lives lost in the Myanmar cyclone?

Question

They are quoting 22,000 lives lost. What happened? Did a big wave sweep them out to sea? I just feel terrible about this.

Answer 1

Probably because of Their ignorance and not being prepared to worst situations have resulted in such a huge no. of lost lives.....

The govt. should have atleast evacuated toe ppl, or prepater safer dug outs for ppl coz cyclone can be predicted 2 to 3 das in advance through satellite...

Answer 2

Because it is a slowly developing country, they do not have many well built structures either. Basically when this storm surge came in, it was about 14 feet high. Imagine a huge wave of water reaching 14 feet high coming at you. That weighs tons as well, so that hitting you alone can kill you. Yes many did get swept out to sea. This will continue to cause many deaths, because they will have this flood water sitting around for months, and it will cause disease, they no longer have good drinking water. So you will see that number raise. My professor in meteorology estimated there was probably about 70,000 to 100,000 deaths.

Answer 3

No, the myanmar govt. is a military govt., accepting little or no aid from other countries, and were severely poor, which lead to many deaths

Answer 4

many of the people live in shanty towns with no protection

Answer 5

I live in the USA and when I heard about it this morning, they said 10,000 or more are dead, I just couldn't believe it and it reminded me of 9/11.  I really feel so bad for them and the death toll is probably gonna rise, it already has from what I read from you.  We can only pray for them

Answer 6

Tidal wave

Answer 7

Most of the population lives in the swamplands of the delta, and were drowned by the tidal surge.