Cyclone Nargis (2008): Myanmar's Deadliest Natural Disaster

Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar (Burma) on 2–3 May 2008, driving a powerful storm surge across the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta. About 138,000 people were killed or went missing, making it the deadliest natural disaster in Myanmar’s recorded history and one of the deadliest cyclones of modern times. The disaster also became an international controversy because of the military government’s restrictions on foreign aid workers.

Formation and track

Nargis formed in the Bay of Bengal in late April 2008. At first it drifted slowly northwards, and some forecasts suggested it might head towards Bangladesh or India. Instead it turned east and intensified rapidly over warm waters.

By the time it reached the coast, Nargis had sustained winds equivalent to a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The India Meteorological Department, the regional centre for cyclone warnings, classified it as a very severe cyclonic storm. It made landfall in the Ayeyarwady Region on the evening of 2 May, then moved east-north-east across the delta and passed close to Yangon, the country’s largest city, during the night and early hours of 3 May.

Unusually, the cyclone travelled almost parallel to the coast and along the delta rather than quickly moving inland. This path kept it strong for longer over densely populated lowlands.

The storm surge

Most deaths were caused not by wind but by the storm surge, a wall of seawater pushed ashore by the cyclone. Surge heights of up to around 3.5–4 metres were reported, and the water travelled many kilometres inland across flat paddy fields and through river channels.

The Irrawaddy Delta is one of the most fertile and crowded farming regions of Myanmar. Much of it lies only a metre or two above sea level, and many villages consisted of light houses of wood and bamboo. Coastal mangrove forests, which can slow storm surges, had been heavily cleared over previous decades for rice fields and shrimp farms.

Myanmar’s meteorological office broadcast warnings, but there was little tradition of evacuation in the delta and few strong shelters to flee to. The worst-hit townships included Bogale, Labutta, Mawlamyinegyun and Pyapon, where entire villages were swept away.

Survivors described the water rising within minutes in the darkness, while winds tore the roofs from houses. Many people survived only by climbing trees or clinging to floating debris through the night. Women, children and the elderly were over-represented among the dead, because they were less able to hold on against the force of the water. In the days that followed, bodies lay in rice fields and waterways across the delta, and survivors gathered in monasteries, schools and other buildings that had stayed standing.

Death toll and damage

The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment, published in July 2008 by the Myanmar government, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations, recorded 84,537 people dead and 53,836 missing. Most of the missing were never found and are presumed dead, giving a combined toll of about 138,000.

Around 2.4 million people were severely affected. Some 800,000 people were displaced, and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged. In Yangon, winds brought down trees and power lines and damaged roofs, leaving the city without electricity and clean water for days.

The economic damage was severe for a poor country. The joint assessment estimated total damage and losses at about 4 billion US dollars. Rice paddies were flooded with salt water, buffaloes used for ploughing were killed, and fishing boats and nets were lost, threatening livelihoods in the country’s main rice-growing area.

The controversy over foreign aid

Myanmar was then ruled by a military government, the State Peace and Development Council, led by Senior General Than Shwe. It had long been isolated from Western countries and suspicious of foreign influence.

In the first weeks after the cyclone, the government accepted relief supplies but strictly limited visas for foreign aid workers and kept many of them in Yangon, away from the delta. Warships from the United States, France and the United Kingdom waited offshore with helicopters and supplies, but the government refused to let them deliver aid directly. Some Western politicians debated whether the international “responsibility to protect” principle justified delivering aid without consent; the idea was rejected by most governments, including Myanmar’s Asian neighbours.

The government also went ahead with a national referendum on a new constitution on 10 May, postponing the vote only in the worst-affected areas until 24 May. Critics argued that this showed its political priorities.

Local people filled much of the gap. Monks, Myanmar civil society groups, private donors and local staff of international organisations carried food, water and medicine into the delta by boat in the first days and weeks.

ASEAN and the opening of access

A diplomatic breakthrough came through regional mediation. ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, took a leading role. On 23 May 2008 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Myanmar and met Than Shwe, who agreed to allow international aid workers of all nationalities into the affected areas.

The government, ASEAN and the UN then formed a Tripartite Core Group to coordinate the relief and recovery effort. Access improved during June, and large-scale distribution of food, shelter materials and clean water expanded. Despite early fears, no major outbreak of epidemic disease followed the disaster.

Recovery

Recovery in the delta took years. Donors funded rebuilding of houses, schools and health centres, and the replacement of seeds, boats and farm animals. However, international funding fell short of what agencies requested, and many families remained in debt or without secure homes several years later.

The disaster also had a lasting effect on aid work inside Myanmar. International agencies that had gained access to the delta stayed on, and the Tripartite Core Group continued to meet until 2010, giving humanitarian organisations an unusual degree of contact with the authorities. Local civil society groups that had formed spontaneously after the storm grew into more permanent organisations.

Some communities replanted mangroves and built cyclone shelters and raised mounds to provide refuge during future storms. Myanmar also strengthened its disaster management planning and early warning systems in the following years.

Historians of Myanmar note that the cooperation with ASEAN and the UN after Nargis was one of the first signs of a cautious opening by the military government, which was followed by the political reforms of the early 2010s. The disaster also called to mind earlier storm-surge catastrophes in the Bay of Bengal, notably the Bhola cyclone of 1970, and came only a few years after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which had also struck Myanmar’s coast.

Timeline

• 2008, 27 April: A tropical depression forms in the Bay of Bengal and is named Nargis the next day.
• 2008, 2 May, evening: Nargis makes landfall in the Ayeyarwady Region of Myanmar.
• 2008, 3 May: The cyclone passes near Yangon, bringing down trees and power lines.
• 2008, 10 May: Myanmar holds its constitutional referendum outside the worst-hit areas.
• 2008, 23 May: Ban Ki-moon meets Than Shwe, who agrees to admit foreign aid workers.
• 2008, 25 May: Donor conference held in Yangon, co-hosted by ASEAN and the UN.
• 2008, July: The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment is published.

Why it matters

Cyclone Nargis showed how a storm surge can devastate a low-lying, unprotected delta within hours. It also became a key case in debates about humanitarian access, state sovereignty and the role of regional organisations, and it influenced Myanmar’s later relationship with the outside world, a country whose earlier politics included the 8888 Uprising.