Cyclone in Burma - 30,000 or 100,000 perished?

The cyclone in Burma was a devastating event but why the difference in the reported dead? On Friday, the reports were 100,000 confirmed dead. (After growing all week from 10K - 20K - 40K - 60K.) Now, after the weekend it is back to 30,000 dead. What happened?

It just a guess number. Nobody knows for sure. The goverment does try to control all sources and not willing to accept any help (afraid of their own people get in touch of information)

Jya-Ning

It also depends on what you decide to count or estimate. Do you count only those who died directly as a result of the storm - i.e., drowning, building collapse, trees falling, etc.

Do you count those who survived the storm but died due to an after effect - exposure, lack of proper sanitation? How long do you keep counting those secondary deaths? If a famine occurs in six months due to destruction of fields, are those counted as part of cyclone toll or not??

Which number someone chooses to report or use can depend on the point they are trying to make.

I never saw or heard any report that said 100,000 confirmed dead. All of the reports that mentioned 100,000 that I heard were suggesting the total might reach this level (due to the factors mentioned by Steve).

Perhaps some reporter got carried away and used the word "confirmed" when he should not have and that is what you heard Bill.

"Roger" said:

I never saw or heard any report that said 100,000 confirmed dead. All of the reports that mentioned 100,000 that I heard were suggesting the total might reach this level (due to the factors mentioned by Steve).

Perhaps some reporter got carried away and used the word "confirmed" when he should not have and that is what you heard Bill.

Click to expand...

I heard 20k confirmed dead with possible 100,000, then I heard 30k poss 100K, then heard 50K confirmed poss 120K but late last week I thought I saw 100K now confirmed dead. Maybe I just misread it.

And now the earthquake in China.

The first report of the Burma cyclone on UK television stated the number of dead as under 100. The number affected obviously rises as more information becomes available. Obtaining that information in Burma is extremely difficult, if not impossible, so it's entirely possible that the true number will never be known. 30,000 or 100,000 is surely irrelevant, it's a massive loss of life either way.