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
2008–09 South Pacific cyclone season Category 2 cyclones. Cyclone Jasper also moved into the region from the Australian basin at its peak wind speeds of 100 km/h (65 mph) which made it a Category Two cyclone. For the first time since the 1994-95 tropical cyclone season there were no tropical cyclones that developed into a Severe Tropical Cyclone, which have winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph). During September and October 2008, both RSMC Nadi and New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) issued seasonal forecasts which contained information on how many tropical cyclones that were predicted to develop within the