The news from Tropical Cyclone Nagris keep coming and getting worse
Earth Observatory shows what happened
(click for hi-res aftermath image).
Chris at the Intersection keeps good running updates, and, we should remember, noted the threat the storm presented early last week!
Jeff Masters at the Weather Underground also has good information.
As Masters notes, the storm hit the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta where the spring rice harvest is just coming in.
This means likely significant loss of crop, with local shortages until the autumn crop comes in.
Myanmar is also a significant rice exporter, which may hit the already tightly squeezed rice export market hard.
See also bloomberg
It will be some time before the true direct casualties of Nargis are known, the initial reports after such disasters usually underestimate, then at some point the death toll may be overestimated as duplicate accounts of tolls are added but not yet reconciled. When disasters are of this magnitude there may never be any solid numbers.
There is also the fear of local epidemics of opportunistic diseases as infrastructure and local health care systems fail.
If there is additional impact on the already tight rice export market, if Myanmar will need significant imports in the short run, the indirect toll may be even higher.
There may be regional starvation in the world on a scale not seen since the 70s.
Hopefully other parts of the world will have several good crops of the major staples, for several harvest seasons in a row.
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