The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization can now estimate that at the time Nargis hit, it devastated 65% of the country’s rice paddies and, because it hit at the height of the growing season, it also ruined rice already brought into warehouses. Nargis also blew away over 700,000 homes, killed three-fourths of livestock, and sank half the Burmese fishing fleet. With a rising death toll, food and water shortages, and the possibility of disease, the situation in Burma needed critical and immediate attention.