A Country in Dire Straits
"We're really not clear on the scale of the destruction at this stage.""They were talking about a town near Mandalay where 80 percent of the buildings were reportedly collapsed.""But it wasn't in the news because telecommunications have been slow."Lauren Ellery, deputy director of programs, Myanmar, International Rescue Committee"Water, both in quantity and in quality, is immensely lacking in the whole country and most specifically in the regions affected by the earthquake.""The lack of water is creating an issue in terms of immediate survival, but could also create an issue in terms epidemics in the future that we definitely want to avoid."Field Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Mikhael De Souza
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"With USAID effectively gutted and critical staff receiving their final notices in the midst of an emergency, the US Government's ability to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and future crises is severely compromised.""Speed, collaboration, and resources are life and death matters when disaster strikes. The illegal decision to dismantle USAID means the U.S. will be unable to show up like it has in past emergencies.""The U.S. has already missed the first urgent window to help find survivors. The second wave of crisis is the millions of people displaced who will soon face threats of disease, hunger, and more without access to clean water, food, shelter and other resources.""The Trump administration must step up and continue the U.S. legacy of providing partnership and leadership right now for the communities who need urgent support."Abby Maxman, president and CEO, Oxfam America
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Last week's massive earthquake in Myanmar has seen the death toll well past 2,000, according to state media. Rescuers spoke of several hundred Muslim, praying at mosques during Ramadan, were crushed to death when the mosques collapsed. A collapsing monastery crushed 200 Buddhist monks.
"The straight nature [of the fault] means earthquakes can rupture over large areas - and the larger the area of the fault that slips, the larger the earthquake.""To accommodate all of this motion, [the Indian plate moving beneath the Burma microplate], faults - cracks in the rock - form which allow tectonic plates to 'slither' sideways.""There have been six magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes in this region in the last century."Dr Rebecca Bell, reader in tectonics at Imperial College London
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| Daw Khin Saw Myint, 72, and her granddaughter are among thousands sleeping outdoors after losing their homes BBC |
Bangkok is an impoverished country, a country embroiled in a civil war, where humanitarian organizations are already challenged in their efforts to respond to the needs of the civilian population. The effects of the earthquake are predicted to exacerbate the outbreak of hunger and disease.
The 7.7 magnitude quake's epicentre on Friday hit close to Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, damaging the city's airport. The tremor buckled roads while hundreds of buildings along the country's central area collapsed. Power outages have hampered relief efforts, as have shortages of fuel and problematic communications.
Search-and-rescue operations have been hampered by a lack of heavy machinery. The result of which has been rescuers without tools using their bare hands to remove rubble in their search for survivors. Daily temperatures in the region register 40 degrees celsius. At Mandalay's collapsed U Hla Thein monastery rescuers were still searching for some 150 of the dead monks.
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| Rescuers face tough conditions to retrieve the bodies of victims, with temperatures reaching nearly 40C BBC |
Approximately 700 Muslim worshippers at Friday prayers were trapped and killed when mosques collapsed. According to a member of the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, 60 mosques were damaged or destroyed. Several mosques were seen toppling, on videos posted on the Irrawaddy online news site.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the military government, informed the prime minister of Pakistan that 2,065 people had died in the earthquake, and over 3,900 were injured, while some 270 people remain missing. Numbers that relief agencies expect to rise sharply in reflection of slow access to remote areas where communications are non-operational.
According to the World Health Organization, three hospitals were destroyed, with 22 others partly damaged in the region. A number of countries have sent rescue teams to the scene; Israel, Russia, China, India and a few southeast Asian countries. Millions of dollars in aid have been promised by the European Union, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and others.
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| Five men are still stuck under this building. BBC |
Labels: Civil War, Humanitarian Aid, Massive Shallow Earthquake, Myanmar, Rescue Efforts, Slithering Tectonic Plates
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 03, 2025
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