Myanmar had a huge earthquake (M6.8) on 24Aug2016.
The outline of the information can be checked by the ADRC website (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Myammar Earthquake 24Aug2016 (ADRC)
“A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar, killing at least three people and damaging nearly 200 pagodas in the famous ancient capital of Bagan. The quake was also felt across neighboring Thailand, India and Bangladesh, sending panicked residents rushing onto the streets (AFP).”
Let’s check the disaster data.
The Figure 2 Figure 3 are the 1900-2016 top 10 deadliest and costliest disasters in Myanmar (EM-DAT).
Figure 2 Totalｓ Deaths (Top 10 deadliest natural disasters in Myanmar)
Figure 3 Total damage (Top 10 costliest natural disasters in Myanmar)
We can confirm how the 2008 Cyclone Nargis was influential.
Many natural disasters which have high total deaths numbers occurred before 2000 (7/10). On the contrary, many high economic damage natural disasters hit after 1990 (8/10). These facts support the following “disaster is from human suffering to economic damage with development process”.
The notes on the recent major events (ADRC) are as follows:
1) Cyclone Nargis (May 2008)
Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May 2008 which killed 84,537, with the missing 53,836, injured 19,359. 450,000 houses were destroyed, with another 350,000 damaged. Total affected people were 2.4 million. The total economic loss was US$ 4.1 billion (according to Post-Nargis Joint Assessment- PONJA).
2) Indian Ocean Tsunami (December 2004)
Indian Ocean Tsunami occurred off the Sumatra Island on 26 December 2006 killed 61, injured 42, affected 2,592 and destroyed 601 houses in Myanmar.
*The numbers of deaths are not the same with different sources. This is the one of the most important challenges of disaster research.
We can especially consider the political conditions for understanding the 2008 Cyclone Nargis disaster exacerbations. During the disaster, the county had refused international aids.
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