Cyclone Nargis Worse Than Thought
Jeff Masters has a Cyclone Nargis update that indicates the death toll could well be above 20,000 as an estimated 10,000 died in one city.
The Irrawaddy River acted much like the MR-GO did in Katrina and increased the damage of the storm surge by acting like a nozzle. The majority of the deaths will likely be from drowning.
Down the road famine is very possible in the entire region as the winter rice crop was being harvested when the storm hit, and Burma is a major regional rice exporter.
If you look around at pictures of the devastation you will notice people clearing debris using hatchets. Trying to cut up a hardwood tree with a hatchet, is a very slow and difficult process at best. Having had to cut up a fair number of softwood pines with a chainsaw, I have a feel for how long it will be for major recovery operations to take hold. Until you clear away the fallen trees on the roadways, you are limited to supplying people by helicopter, and there aren’t that many helicopters available.
2 comments
You’ll be glad to know the Shrub has authorized an astounding $250,000 for the relief effort. I guess the guys in Iraq will have to do without shit paper for a few hours.
I’ve a bad attitude and am proud of it!
We need to have at least an amphibious assault ship, like the Bataan, headed that way with its helicopters, amphibious vehicles, water purification capacity, and hospital facilities, if not the extraneous carrier group over by the Gulf. This is Navy/Marine mission from the get go because of the lay of the land and lack of facilities.
The Air Force could be there quicker, but they can’t react with the scale of relief thats needed until some landing strips are operating, and they need government permission to land, whereas the Navy can hang off the coast until the officials see the light.
This is no time to play politics as people are dying. You can’t even buy a decent house for $250K anymore, what kind of crap is that? We can do damage assessment with satellite photos, and get a better idea of the overall situation than people on the ground.
Hearts and minds – they just do not understand the value of hearts and minds.