Burma cyclone

As you may be aware on Saturday Burma was hit by Cyclone Nargis. As there is very little difference between a cyclone and a hurricane Nargis brought with it heavy rain, strong winds and a massive storm surge.

The effect of this was to kill 60,000 people in the space of a few short hours. It has also destroyed homes, farmland, infrastructure including roads and boats, livestock, food stores and water stores.

This means that in the five days following the storm another 40,000 people have died from their injuries, lack of water and lack of basic shelter. Over the next couple of days the number of dead will increase exponentially as unburied corpses begin to rot causing disease to spread and people slowly starve to death.

Normally under these circumstances there would be a swift moving international aid effort to prevent this from happening sadly however the Burmese government has refused the outside world access for fear that they attempt to topple the regime although quite what they think the effect of allowing their people to suffer and die in such large numbers will have on their stability is beyond me.

I should also point out that 100,000 - 150,000 dead is the best outcome from this situation because neighbouring Thailand has already experienced unrest due to a lack of food so large scale destruction in Burma could have a knock on effect that destabilises the wider region.

The Burmese government currently despise me meaning that anything I say will probably only inflame the situation further and jeopardize what are already tense negotiations so I don't think I have anything more to add other then;

https://www.donate.bt.com/bt_form_cyclone.html

Which is the donation page for the Disasters Emergency Committee and umbrella organisation of charities and non-governmental aid agencies many of whom already have people operating within Burma.