The cyclone which hit in Myanmar, Thailand over the weekend, is now the deadliest disaster to hit the human race since the 2004 tsunami. YWN had originally reported that there were 350 deaths, but that rapidly changed. The reports saw numbers climb to 4,000, then 10,000, and late Monday night rose to 15,000.
But as of Tuesday morning, the numbers are being reported to be at 22,000 (Fox / CNN / NBC), and as many as 50,000.
The (UK) Times Online reports: Foreign aid workers in Burma have concluded that as many as 50,000 people died in Saturday’s cyclone, and two to three million are homeless, in a disaster whose scale invites comparison with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The official death count after Cyclone Nargis is 15,000, and the Thai Foreign Minister says he has been told that 30,000 people are missing. But due to the incompleteness of the information from the stricken Irrawaddy delta, UN and charity workers in the city of Rangoon privately believe that the number will eventually be several times higher.
[Click HERE to see all the YWN reports on this story]
(YWN News Desk)
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8 Responses
Does anybody know the history of Myanmar, Thailand?
The Chofetz Chaim would say that when there is a disaster in the world the Rebbono shel olam wants the world to do teshuva. I doubt the world will take note…
Its very disturbing that a tragedy of this magnitude garners no attention from any of the commentators. Only when something G-D forbid happens to one of your own does it attract attention.
Can anyone begin to fathom what *fifty thousand* dead means?
#5, I started to think about what fifty thousand means, how much the number is, and that each number is a person and whole life. Then I got nauseated thinking that six million, which is many many fifty thousands, perished in the Holocaust.
KSN: We are most definitely not equating this disaster to the Holocaust.
I know we are not equating it, my mind was just boggled by the numbers.
One machshava raaha from A hechere yid in america can cause this turmoil.