FOXNews.com has obtained from Worldwide Impact Now exclusive video smuggled out of Burma exposes grim conditions inside the country during and immediately after Cyclone Nargis.
As Burma's military junta continues to throw up barriers to bringing much-needed foreign aid into the cyclone-ravaged nation, new video recently smuggled out of the country shows the intensity of Cyclone Nargis and the damage it left behind.
The video was shot by Burmese locals in the Irrawaddy River delta region, one of the hardest-hit areas.
• Click here to see raw video of the wrath of Cyclone Nargis.
The footage was sneaked out of the country using a complex system of couriers. Media and information are tightly controlled in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and anyone carrying video or satellite phone equipment can be arrested.
Worldwide Impact Now, an aid group that operates from various border areas around Burma, supplied the video equipment to villagers seeking to document their experience. The video was shot by untrained videographers, some of whom reportedly lost family members.
Scenes in the first video were taken on May 3, the day the storm struck, and show pelting rain and winds of up to 120 miles per hour.
The storm arrived with little warning, razing towns and damaging tens of thousands of homes, many of which were huts made of wood and reeds. Evacuations were impossible because of the lack of warning and communication systems.
Some people braved the elements, although most residents sought refuge in strong buildings.
Another video shows the deadly destruction left behind by Cyclone Nargis.
The night of the storm, locals reported that a 12- to 16-foot wave bore down on Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta, where this footage was shot. Many of the one-story buildings were flooded, and people climbed onto their roofs to avoid drowning.
• Click here to see raw footage of the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
Warning: this footage contains graphic material
The 120-mile-per-hour winds threw people into the deep floodwater. Broken tree branches and collapsed houses filled the water with debris.
According to one village leader, 15 villages in the area were destroyed, and his entire congregation was gone.
Bodies were discovered in the fields and waterways when the floodwaters receded.
According to the U.N., Cyclone Nargis completely destroyed a third of the villages in Laputta Township, and more than 80,000 people died or are still missing in the region.
Another video shows how victims of Cyclone Nargis — days and weeks after the storm struck — were still in desperate need of aid.
This footage, taken over the course of two weeks, shows refugees coming off boats after being evacuated from coastal regions in the western part of the Irrawaddy River delta. Many of their villages were completely submerged.
• Click here to see raw footage of aid reaching survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
Survivors searched for basic necessities and crowded around cars bringing relief. Some found help at rescue centers set up by local aid groups.
According to humanitarian groups, handouts seen here were bought by donations and money funneled into the country partly by philanthropist-activist Greg Shade and others. Little or no government aid was reported to have made it to this region when the video was shot.
Since then, assistance to this region has increased. A recent Red Cross report stated that 49 percent of the region's population is receiving aid — up from 23 percent on May 25. But it warns that there remains a "serious lack" of sufficient aid.
The U.N. estimates that Cyclone Nargis killed 78,000 people in Burma, and 56,000 others are missing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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