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Cyclone Nargis continued to move northeast on 4 May into Thailand though its effect is said to be lessening. Bangkok media reported that Thai navy ships rescued 302 stranded tourists from Surin island in the Andaman Sea and the Thai meteorological office has issued a warning of possible flooding and landslides on 5 May in 16 provinces in the west and northwest of the country.¹

State television in Burma says the death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country Saturday, has risen to nearly four-thousand. It says almost 3,000 people are missing.²

The main feature is Tropical Cyclone Nargis, which is located in the North Indian Ocean. Nargis has intensified rapidly over the last 24 hours and is expected to continue to do so as it gains speed and moves NE over the next few days.³

Much of the world has been relatively quiet of late for hurricanes – but it’s important to bear in mind that that has not been the case for the North Indian region. First came 2007’s shocking Category 5 Arabian Sea cyclone, Gonu; then came Sidr; and now, here’s Nargis.⁴

Met office sources said the names of futures cyclones that are likely to form over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea have already been fixed. The name of the next possible cyclone that is to hit the region is ‘Nargis’ and the following one will be ‘Abe’.⁵

The name of a cyclone is fixed in advance by at regional metrological conferences. Since the name Nargis was fixed, it became a much talked about fear among people in the coastal belts hit by Cyclone Sidr.⁶