Cyclone Relief Efforts Get High-Tech Help

Satellites can also go where planes can't, said Val Webb of GeoEye, another commercial satellite operator.

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The satellites were helpful "especially during Sept. 11, when airspace [was] blocked off," Webb said. "Airplanes couldn't go over, but our satellites still did."

But even the clearest, most detailed satellite image in the world won't save Myanmar.

"We can do a heck of a lot with the planning," said Bromley. "But if no one gets on the ground in there, it won't be useful, in the relief sense; it would only be useful in the academic sense."