At Least 10,000 Likely Dead from Myanmar Cyclone [News]
Monday, May 5, 2008 - 15:56
in Earth & Climate
Four thousand people are reported dead after a cyclone tore through the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar late Friday night and early Saturday morning. Over 10 hours, winds traveling up to 150 miles per hour struck Yangdon, Myanmar's largest city, and dumped 20 inches of rain on the harbortown, formerly known as Rangoon. According to CNN, the country's foreign minister expects that the final death toll to rise to more than 10,000 That would make the storm -- Tropical Cyclone Nargis -- one of Myanmar's most deadly natural disasters and the second largest in the region after the tsunami of 2004, which took nearly 200,000 lives. [More]