Cyclone Nargis Cyclone Nargis posed 48 hours before it hit the country's coast. Relief efforts were slowed for political reasons as Myanmar's military rulers initially resisted large-scale international aid. US President George W. Bush said that an angry world should condemn the way Myanmar's military rulers were handling the aftermath of such a catastrophic cyclone. Myanmar's military junta finally accepted aid a few days after India's request was accepted. Hampering the relief efforts, only ten days after the cyclone, nearby central China was hit by a massive earthquake, known as the Sichuan earthquake which measured 7.9 in magnitude and it alone had
Cyclone Nargis from Cyclone Sidr in the previous year and flooding earlier in the year, and a direct strike from Nargis would have resulted in destroyed crops due to strong winds. The United Nations estimated that 1.5 million people were "severely affected" by this cyclone. Estimates of the people missing were 53,836, with 84,537 confirmed dead. Some NGOs estimated that the final death toll would be over 100,000. At least 10,000 people were reported to have perished in the delta town of Bogale alone. Nargis was the deadliest tropical cyclone worldwide since the Typhoon Nina in 1975, which killed at least 229,000