Summary
of International Disasters of 2008
By
Mark Roupas
Two
major disasters headline the summary of international
disasters for 2008; Cyclone Nargis making landfall in Myanmar (formerly
known
as Burma) on May 3nd and the major earthquake in southwest
China on
May 12th.
Cyclone
Nargis made landfall in Myanmar on May 3,
2008, causing catastrophic destruction and at least
146,000 fatalities
with thousands more reported as missing.
The complete death toll may never be completely known as
the Myanmar
leadership did not conduct a complete count for political reasons. Outside international agencies have estimated
up to 500,000 to 1 million people might have died in this disaster. Complicating relief efforts was the initial
refusal of Burma's military rulers to accept international aid. The
most recent
reports (Feb 2009) from the United Nations now indicate the military
rulers
have “accepted” greater international assistance and approximately 240
non-governmental organizations continue to actively work recovery
efforts. While international relief
efforts continue
to work recovery efforts, in 2008, international support for this
disaster was
impacted by the major earthquake which struck China ten days later.
On
May 12th, the southwest China
Province of Wenchaun County was hit with a major earthquake measuring
8.0 in
magnitude on the Richter scale. The last
reported death toll was 68,858 people with an additional 366,596 people
injured
and 18,618 people missing. At least 9,000 of the dead or missing are
school
children and teachers. A total of 45.61 million people have been
affected,
including 15 million people evacuated from their homes; of these, 5
million are
living in temporary shelters. The Ministry of Commerce has announced
that up to
10 million additional people are now living below the poverty line as a
result
of the earthquake.
The
magnitude of this disaster was such that for the first
time since 1998, the Government of China actively welcomed assistance
from the international
community. It should also be noted that personnel from the United
States Corps
of Engineers traveled to China to assist in assessments of dams which
might
have been damaged. In total, nearly 400
dams suffered damage from the earthquake.
In
addition to the above major disasters, there were a
number of other floods, earthquakes, storms and one plague of locusts
that
affected other countries around the world.
Sources:
Center
for International Disaster Support: http://iys.cidi.org/disaster/index.html
Wikipedia
article on Cyclone Nargis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Nargis
International
Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/25/asia/myanmar.php