On May 2nd, 2008, tropical cyclone 'Nargis' swept over Myanmar and left behind a path of destruction. Wind speeds of more than 200 km/h and a storm surge of up to 3 meters in height destroyed more than 90 percent of housing and large parts of infrastructure in some regions. It is believed that more then 100,000 people could have died and more than a million people have lost their homes in the disaster (16/05/08). In the affected regions the people face a lack of food and drinking water. As large regions are still inundated and the rain intensity increased during the last days, there is a high risk of epidemic plagues, like cholera, in the Irrawaddy delta.

Based on data of the RADAR satellites TerraSAR-X (DLR/Infoterra) and ALOS/PALSAR (JAXA), the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR produces maps of the affected areas and supports the activities of the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN OCHA. Map production is carried out in the framework of the GMES Service Element RESPOND or is accomplished in collaboration with ITHACA.

		ZKI Satellite image maps: Flooded areas from TerraSAR-X and ALOS/PALSAR data May 9, 2008 - 08:15 UTC The maps of ZKI show the flooded areas at the Irrawaddy Delta at a scale of 1:50,000 to 1:200,000.  More ...