The Myanmar dictatorship's reluctance to allow entry of international humanitarian relief personnel is unconscionable in my opinion. At the same time, it puts the hundreds of thousands of homeless people at risk of disease, a development that could magnify the already catastrophic death toll.

For those who are interested in why the Category 3 cyclone's storm surge proved so devastating, the storm's track and the area's geographic features combined to make the low-lying Ayeyarwaddy Delta a death trap. Nargis' track allowed the storm maximum time and an optimal wind direction to pile the waters up the many tributaries that finger from the Ayeyarwaddy.


Note: Nargis' storm track/storm surge trajectory were overlayed on a Google Earth image of Myanmar.

The video of Nargis' track to landfall can be found at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies' website:
MIMIC