NPR: Myanmar Update: Death, Flooding, Destruction

Myanmar Update: Death, Flooding, Destruction

Filed under: News

The red areas were flooded as of May 5. Click for (huge) source PDF.

Yesterday I posted some of the first pictures out of Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis passed through. They came from the city Yangon, where people were clearing roads and drying out their possessions.

Judging from news reports, the scene in Yangon was far from representative. Officials are describing damage on the scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with at least 22,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless after the weekend storm.

Full read: AFP report on ReliefWeb

Laura Conaway

10:18 AM ET | 05- 6-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

AmeriCares has assembled life-saving medical and other humanitarian supplies at their Stamford, CT and Amsterdam warehouses to be shipped immediately to their partners on the ground in Myanmar. AmeriCares staff are also en route to the region.

Sent by Erin Skinner | 12:43 PM ET | 05-06-2008

I am angered that you took time to discuss this. I want more stories like "worst beers", "how to make goth cake", and "the amazingly fantastical world of yogurt"

I want interviews with "indie" (indie isn't indie anymore, its mainstream) bands whose music all sounds exactly the same.

I want more inane stories about people changing their names to something dumb.

More stories about inanity on twitter and youtube.

There isn't time for news. This is America. I want to be an apathetic idiot.

Actually in all seriousness you are heading south in terms of content, and I am pleased and surprised that you chose not to ignore this story and chose not to instead run something about shoes, bananas, yo-yos, playdough, a monkey who writes haiku, or a second recipe for goth cake.

Disasters remind us whats important in life. So let's take this opportunity to reflect on what we want our news media to be and what we don't want our news media to be.

Sent by Brian | 2:18 PM ET | 05-06-2008

Brian -- Your comment is incredibly unfair. You are cherry picking from the blog and from the show. I can do the same thing, but in the opposite direction. In the past week we've covered Cuba relaxing restrictions on its citizens, the 5th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished", a discussion about Adam Gadahn, an American-born al-Qaeda operative, a report on Houston becoming the worst CO2 polluter, a discussion with NPR reporter Julie McCarthy about a vote for autonomy in Bolivia. Tomorrow we will have reports on today's primaries as well as a conversation with Mary Tillman who wrote a book about how she feels the Pentagon covered up her son's death as well as a report on how difficult it is to get aid into Myanmar. We have four newscasts every show. I could go on for a while, just as I'm sure you can on the other side -- and I think we'd both be right. Yeah, we do lots of music. We do lots of feature and human interest. We do the stuff that interests us and we think might interest everyone reading and listening. Sometimes we get it wrong -- other days it's spot on. I don't want to stifle debate or conversation about the show -- but it seems to me that you're coming to the show with your mind already made up.

Sent by Matt Martinez-NPR | 3:15 PM ET | 05-06-2008

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