BANGKOK: Aid groups arriving in the worst-hit areas of Myanmar said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water after last week’s devastating quake, while in Bangkok, rescuers pressed on searching for life under the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper.
More than 2,000 people died in the 7.7 magnitude quake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday (Mar 28), and as aid teams made it into areas near the epicentre, it became clear to them that a massive humanitarian effort was required for those who survived.
“Having lived through the terror of the earthquake, people now fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields,” an International Rescue Committee worker in Mandalay said.
“However, in towns and cities, safe spaces are scarce. There is an urgent need for tents, as even those whose homes remain intact are too afraid to sleep indoors.”
The IRC said its teams found people also urgently needed medical care, drinking water and food.
Civil war in Myanmar, where the junta seized power in a coup in 2021, has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless by the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest quake in a century.
In Mandalay, a resident told Reuters that people were desperately trying to organise their own efforts to dig bodies out of rubble as there was not enough equipment or rescue teams, and locals were wary of aftershocks.
“People went back inside the building in the daytime but still not dare to sleep at night,” the resident said
“People are still sleeping outside and started getting sick … as the ground has been hit by sun the whole day and so it’s hot.”
Around the city, apartment complexes have been flattened, a Buddhist religious complex eviscerated and hotels crumpled and twisted into ruins.
At some disaster sites, the smell of rotting bodies was unmistakable.
On the outskirts of Mandalay, a crematorium has received hundreds of bodies for disposal, with many more to come as victims are dug out of the rubble.
Fear of aftershocks has forced the city’s 1,000-bed general hospital to move its patients into the car park, where they lie on gurneys with only a thin tarpaulin rigged overhead to shield them from the fierce tropical sun.
State media has reported Myanmar’s death toll at 2,065, with more than 3,900 injured and at least 270 missing. The military government declared a week-long mourning period from Monday, with flags to fly at half-mast on official buildings until Apr 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages”.
A minute of silence in tribute to the victims will be held on Tuesday.
The country will come to a standstill at 12.51pm local time – the precise time the quake struck on Friday – to remember those lost.
The ruling junta has asked the population to pause at that time, and said media should halt broadcasting and display mourning symbols, while prayers will be offered at temples and pagodas.
The junta’s tight control over communication networks and the damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure caused by the quakes have intensified the challenges for aid workers.
In Bangkok, rescuers were still scouring the ruins of an unfinished skyscraper that collapsed for signs of life, but aware that as nearly four days had passed since the quake, the odds of finding survivors lengthened.
Search and rescue teams said they planned to bring in emotional support dogs for the relatives of the dead and missing.
Thirteen deaths have been confirmed at the building site, with 74 people still missing.
Thailand’s national death toll from the quake stands at 20.
Initial tests showed that some steel samples collected from the site of the collapsed building were substandard, Thai industry ministry officials said. The government has launched an investigation into the cause of the collapse.
