The Naypyitaw fire department said the woman was buried for 91 hours after she collapsed in a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that occurred at noon Friday. Experts say the possibility of survivors finding a sharp drop after 72 hours has dropped significantly.
Death count forecasts increase
Minnie Ian, head of the Myanmar military government
He said Friday’s earthquake was the second strongest earthquake in the country’s history, after Mandelai’s magnitude 8 earthquake east of Mandalay in May 1912.
So far, most of the reports have come from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, close to the center of the earthquake and the capital Napito.
“The demand is huge and it’s increasing every hour,” said Julia Rees, deputy representative of UNICEF.
The Myanmar Fire Department said 403 people have been rescued in Mandalay and so far 259 bodies have been found. In one incident, 50 monks who took religious exams in a monastery when the building collapsed were killed, and 150 more were believed to have been buried in the ruins.
Structural damage is widespread
The World Health Organization said it is well known that more than 10,000 buildings have collapsed or severely damaged the earthquake.
The earthquake also shocked nearby Thailand, causing a high-rise building to collapse and bury many workers.
Two bodies were pulled out of the rubble on Monday, and another body was recovered Tuesday, but dozens were still missing. Overall, 21 people were killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, mainly at construction sites.
In Myanmar, search and rescue work in the entire affected area was temporarily suspended at noon Tuesday, with people standing for a minute in a silent tribute to the dead.
Relief work moves at a slow pace
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to aid rescue efforts, but progress has lagged due to the lack of heavy machinery in many places.
On Tuesday, at a site in Naypyitaw, workers formed a human chain to manually disengage large pieces of brick and concrete from the ruins of a collapsed building.
A group of Chinese rescuers rescued four people from the ruins of an apartment building, Myanmar newspaper reported on Tuesday. They include a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who has been trapped for more than 60 hours.
It also reported that two teenagers were able to use their cell phone flashlight to crawl out of the rubble of the same building to help them guide. Rescuers were then able to find their grandmother and siblings using the details they told them.
International rescue teams from several countries are on the scene, including from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and several Southeast Asian countries.
A small U.S. agency of the U.S. International Development Disaster Assessment Team arrived Tuesday to determine how to best respond with limited U.S. resources, due to cuts to foreign aid budgets and the demolition of the agency to operate independently.
A U.S. official said the three-person team waited for visas while traveling in neighbouring Thailand after a decision to provide $2 million in emergency aid to Myanmar over the weekend. The official spoke on anonymous because the team’s arrival has not yet been announced publicly.
Aid promises fall in when officials warn of disease risk
Meanwhile, several countries have committed millions of dollars to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations complete their enormous tasks.
According to the United Nations, even before the earthquake, Myanmar’s brutal civil war had been displaced from homes, with nearly 20 million people displaced.
Many have already lacked basic medical and standard vaccinations, earthquakes have damaged water and sanitation infrastructure, people migrating people to crowded shelters increases the risk of disease outbreaks, and warns the United Nations Office to coordinate humanitarian affairs.
“The vulnerability to respiratory infections, skin diseases, vector-borne diseases (such as dengue) and preventable vaccines such as measles is escalating,” Ocha said in its latest report.
The attack of the monsoon season is also a concern
Shelter is also a major issue, especially with the imminent monsoon season.
Many people have been sleeping outside since the earthquake, either because the house was destroyed or out of fear of aftershocks.
Civil war complicates disaster relief
Myanmar’s army seized power from the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi government in 2021, which triggered something that turned into armed resistance and a brutal civil war.
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places cannot reach aid groups even before the earthquake.
Military attacks and military attacks by some anti-military groups did not cease after the earthquake, although the shadow opposition National Unification Government called for a unilateral ceasefire for its troops.
The nug was established by elected lawmakers who were removed in 2021, calling on the international community to ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered directly to earthquake victims, urging to be “vigilant against any attempt by the junta to divert or obstruct humanitarian aid”, saying that it could have “damaging consequences”.
The ceasefire program on the armed wing called the People’s Defense Forces has little impact on the battlefield, but can raise more international condemnation of the military’s continued action, including air strikes reported by independent media.
The second armed opposition group, a coalition of three powerful minority guerrillas, called the “Three Brothers Alliance”, announced Tuesday that it will also implement a one-month unilateral ceasefire.
However, Min Aung Hlaing, who appeared to refuse to implement a ceasefire, said in his speech on Tuesday that the military would continue to take necessary defensive measures against some ethnic armed groups that have not currently conducted combat operations but are undergoing military training, which he said was hostile action.
It is unclear whether the military has been hindering humanitarian aid. In the past, it initially refused to allow foreign rescue teams or many emergency supplies after the 2008 Cyclone Nargis, which resulted in more than 100,000 deaths. Even if foreign aid is indeed allowed, it is subject to strict restrictions.
In this case, however, Min Aung Hlaing made it clear that on the day of the earthquake, the country would receive external help.
Tom Andrews, the supervisor of Myanmar rights commissioned by the unsupported Human Rights Commission, said on X that military attacks must be stopped in order to promote aid.
“Myanmar’s focus must be on saving lives, not taking lives,” he said.
