Nargis, the Cyclone

The cyclone hit the former Burmese capital Rangoon and caused a tremendous amount of devastation. The wind speed was 120mph, and in the wake of the cyclone, the Yangon International Airport was shut down, redirecting the landing aircrafts to Mandalay; electricity was cut off in most parts of the city; MRTV transmission was disrupted; roads were blocked by rooted trees; shattered pieces of glass from broken windows were everywhere; some cars were flattened by fallen trees; communications—telephone and Internet—were disrupted until the time of writing.

The government has issued state of emergency in five states of Burma. Since the communications were all cut off, any clear picture of the situation and a clearer account of what happened are not yet available; there could have been casualties and deaths but the exact count is not known.

This cyclone is the worst disaster Yangon has ever seen in my life or even in my parents' life. Never was there any such devastating tropical cyclone in Yangon, at least in my memory.

Keep up with the latest news at Google News and latest blog posts.

Updates

Videos
Some videos from YouTube

BBC News coverage hosted at YouTube (no embed link).

A video from DVB Norway.

Photos
Some pictures hosted at DVB (use IE to view; I wasn't able to view them using Firefox).
A collection of pictures from various sources (AFP and Xinhua)

Pretty comprehensive collection of photos at Flicker.

News
Death toll is now 241 according to the AFP news.

"According to the latest information we have, altogether 19 people were killed in Yangon division and then about 222 people killed in Ayeyawaddy division," an information ministry official told AFP.

Death toll has now increased to 351 according to the same AFP news.
Myanmar has rejected United Nation's offer for relief aid.

Death toll has increased tremendously to around 4000 according to Yahoo news.