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World 'Knew' About Cyclone, Expert Says

Posted May 9, 08 9:20 PM CDT in Science & Health,  World 

(Newser) – Burma says it warned its people of Cyclone Nargis 5 days before landfall, when it learned of the storm over news wires—but one expert believes Burma's media outlets were too primitive to spread the message. With Burma's death toll as high as 100,000, Newsweek talked to a global weather analyst about the warning that failed to reach Burma's people.

“You have to have infrastructure to get information like this out,” said Paul Drewniak, the manager of the Global Forecast Center. “It's pretty much the media outlets. And that's why it's so unsettling in (Burma), because this was a global news story. You would think the media there would have at least had a high-level notice this was coming.”

Source Newsweek

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Residents of Yangon walk past downed trees Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Democratic Voice of Burma, HO)
In this photograph released by Democratic Voice of Burma on Friday, bodies of children killed during Cyclone Nargis lay in the water in an unknown location in Myanmar.   (AP Photo/str)
An elderly Myanmar woman lays waiting for help in a hut following last weekend's devastating cyclone, in Kun Chan Gone township, near Yangon.   (AP Photo/Democratic Voice of Burma)
Map with elevation and other data shows the path of Cyclone Nargis.   (AP Photo)
This image provided by NASA shows Cyclone Nargis as it approaches the coast of Bangladesh Thursday May 1, 2008.   (AP Photo)
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Burma • Myanmar • weather • natural disaster • Cyclone Nargis • cyclone • disaster preparedness • Pacific Tsunami Warning Center


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