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Cyclone Nargis: 22,000 dead and counting

Uploaded by: TheLonelyTuber
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The death toll in Myanmar's devastating cyclone has now risen to more than 22,000, state media said. Another 41,000 people are also missing after cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta on Saturday (May 3).
The announcement comes as international aid agencies are pushing to launch a massive operation in the worst-affected areas of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people are said to be without clean water and shelter, with some areas still cut off. The casualty count has been rising quickly as
authorities reach hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the former "rice bowl of Asia", which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis's 190 km (120 mile) per hour winds. Amateur video obtained by Reuters showed the cyclone's impact on areas around the famous Shwedagon pagoda and R
oyal Lake in the former capital, Yangon. Many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in shanty towns. State television showed military and police units on rescue and cleanup operations in Yangon, but residents complained the junta's response was weak. The sca
le of the disaster from Saturday's (May 3) devastating cyclone drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The secretive military, which has ruled the former Burma for 46 years, has
moved even further into the shadows in the past six months due to the widespread outrage at its bloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks in September. General Thein Sein, Myanmar's Prime Minister, was appointed to lead the relief effort, and toured areas hit by the storm. On Mond
ay, he toured damaged areas, addressed residents and visited injured in hospital. After getting a "careful green light" from the government, the United Nations said it was pulling out all the stops to send in emergency aid such as food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting. United Nations Sec
retary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "very saddened by all the Myanmese people having been struck by this cyclone" and pledged to mobilize international aid and assistance as needed. In Yangon, food and fuel prices soared and aid agencies scrambled to deliver emergency supplies and assess the dama
ge in the five declared disaster zones, home to 24 million people. Clean water was scarce. Most shops sold out of candles and batteries and there was no word when power would be restored. Despite the devastation, Myanmar's leaders, in the isolated new capital of Naypyidaw 400 kilometres (2
40 miles) north of Yangon, said they would go ahead with a May 10 referendum on a new army-drafted constitution that critics say will entrench the military. Paul Risely, UN spokesperson with the World Food programme spoke exclusively to TIMES NOW and said, "This will require a major logistical setu
p in order to provide disaster relief to all the areas that were affected by the cyclone. It will require bringing people in on a much larger scale in the same way to some degree the response to the tsunami was carried out."

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