Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Satellite photos show cyclone fury

The two satellite photos above from the US space agency Nasa show the devastating affect of Cyclone Nargis which swept over the Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar on Saturday.

The image on the left taken in April 15 shows the Irrawaddy river flowing south and splitting into numerous distributaries.

Rivers and lakes are sharply defined against a backdrop of vegetation and fallow agricultural land.

The image on the right taken on May 5 shows the entire coastal plain is flooded after the area took a direct hit from the cyclone.

The city of Yangon (located by the red rectangle) is almost completely surrounded by floods.

8 comments:

annom said...

Jesus! The height of that image is 250km. Amazing image, too bad so many people live there.

annom said...

lol, america gave a whopping 3 million dollar to Burma. That's 0.00002% of their GDP. It also spent 350 million on the war on drugs this week.

EU 2 million euro, Holland 1 million.

cybrbeast said...

Well apparently there are some problems with the Burma dictators. They hardly let aid agencies in. And countries don't really want to pledge money to dictators.

22000+ reported dead...

annom said...

yeah, but why the small amounts then anyway?

pimp-a-lot bear said...

if you don't want to give money to dictators, give some stuff to the people. food, blankets, tents, porn magazines, just the basic stuff you need to survive.

annom said...

that's what the money would have to buy anyway: american blankets, food, tents, porn, etc. The money should stay in america, that's a requirement for american aid.

pimp-a-lot bear said...

of course it is! You really thought they were helping these poor little people? It's all about stimulating the American economy, but you knew that already...

Sometimes, when I feel a little naive, I make the mistake to assume they want to help. I always feel like I've been punched in the face when reality kicks in.

cybrbeast said...

The EU and aid organizations have said that more money is available, but they need to be let in first and the money needs to go to concrete objectives. Burma won't even let in journalists atm.
Food and medical aid is being supplied right now.