Cyclone Nargis hit Burma's impoverished Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, 2008, leaving nearly 140,000 people dead or missing and severely affecting about 2.4 million others, according to the UN. The Burmese military government initially blocked most access to the affected region; however, amid international pressure, it slowly began allowing international aid workers entry into the region. Since 1997, the United States has imposed sanctions to prohibit, among other things, the exportation of financial services to Burma and transactions with Burmese officials.
Burmese citizens and local organizations also assisted cyclone victims. According to the same report, within hours of the cyclone, the first local response efforts were underway, led by monks, doctors, students, artists, intellectuals, travel agents, and small business owners. Several hundred new and existing groups, including a contingent of Burmese citizens returning from abroad, provided relief. While most of the larger international agencies initially focused on the main population centers, many of these small, informal groups assisted the most isolated areas. Several officials cited the local response as one of the main reasons there was not a further loss of life in the weeks immediately following the cyclone; however, they reported that the local response was exhausting its supplies by the end of May 2008.
2011.07.26 US Government Accountability Office
A US governmental report on the effectiveness of US aid to Burma in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis said there is a need for better monitoring. The US provided around US $85 million to assist victims of Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people and affected some 2.4 million others when it struck in May 2008. According to the report, responders found it difficult to reach affected areas because the Burmese government limited their travel and the infrastructure was poor. Responders also had difficulty coordinating between headquarters and field offices for several reasons, including limited telecommunication services, the report said, adding that a US report highlighted coordination challenges amongst US agencies, stating that agencies conflicting agendas resulted in difficulties related to the appropriateness, timing, procurement and distribution of aid. Implementation challenges include supplies that were incompatible with local conditions, such as medicines with instructions printed in non-Burmese languages and difficulties monitoring aid. Capacity challenges included a lack of experienced disaster specialists in Burma, which resulted in non-qualified individuals being placed in positions out of necessity. In the weeks following the cyclone, the Burmese government said it would accept international aid but refused to allow international aid workers into the country, insisting that the disaster could be handled internally and that foreign experts were not needed. Despite the inability of international aid workers to get into Burma for the first few weeks after the disaster and government restrictions on their movement within the country when they were allowed in, some aid was delivered, the report said.