Survivors still being found from Myanmar earthquake, but hopes begin to fade as deaths exceed 2,700

Boston Globe

01-04-2025

He said Friday's earthquake was the second most powerful in the country's recorded history after a magnitude 8 quake east of Mandalay in May 1912.
The casualty figures are widely expected to rise. The earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone, or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
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Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, the capital.
'The needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour,' said Julia Rees, UNICEF's deputy representative for Myanmar.
Myanmar's fire department said 403 people have been rescued in Mandalay and 259 bodies have been found so far. In one incident, 50 Buddhist monks who were taking a religious exam in a monastery were killed when the building collapsed, and 150 more are thought to be buried in the rubble.
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The World Health Organization said more than 10,000 buildings overall are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged by the quake.
The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing a high-rise building under construction to collapse and burying many workers.
Two bodies were pulled from the rubble Monday and another was recovered Tuesday, but dozens were still missing. Overall, there were 21 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site.
In Myanmar, search and rescue efforts across the affected area paused briefly at midday Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the dead.
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress lagged due to a lack of heavy machinery in many places.
In one site in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, workers formed a human chain, passing chunks of brick and concrete out hand-by-hand from the ruins of a collapsed building.
The state Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Tuesday that a team of Chinese rescuers saved four people the day before from the ruins of an apartment complex. They included a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who had been trapped for more than 60 hours.
It also reported that two teenagers were able to crawl out of the rubble of the same building using their cellphone flashlights to help guide them. Rescue workers were then able to use details from what they told them to locate their grandmother and sibling.
International rescue teams from several countries are on the scene, including from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and several Southeast Asian countries.
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A small US Agency for International Development disaster assessment team arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited US resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation.
A US official said the three-person team had waited for visas before making the trip from neighboring Thailand following a weekend decision to provide $2 million in emergency assistance to Myanmar. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the team's arrival has not yet been publicly announced.
Meantime, multiple countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
Even before the earthquake, more than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes by Myanmar's brutal civil war, and nearly 20 million were in need, according to the UN.
Many were already lacking in basic medical care and standard vaccinations, and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure by the earthquake and the movement of people into overcrowded shelters raises the risk of disease outbreaks, warned the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
'Vulnerability to respiratory infections, skin diseases, vector-borne illnesses such as dengue fever, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles is escalating,' OCHA said in its latest report.
Shelter is also a major problem, especially with the monsoon season looming.
Since the earthquake, many people have been sleeping outside, either because homes were destroyed or out of fear of aftershocks.
Myanmar's military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into significant armed resistance and a brutal civil war.
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Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places were dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach even before the quake.
Military attacks and those from some anti-military groups have not stopped in the aftermath of the earthquake, though the shadow opposition National Unity Government has called a unilateral ceasefire for its forces.
The NUG, established by elected lawmakers who were ousted in 2021, called for the international community to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered directly to the earthquake victims, urging 'vigilance against any attempts by the military junta to divert or obstruct humanitarian assistance," saying that could have 'devastating consequences.'
The cease-fire plan for the armed wing of the NUG, called the People's Defense Force, would have little effect on the battlefield, but could draw more international condemnation of continuing operations by the military, including air attacks reported by independent media.
A second armed opposition group, a coalition of three powerful ethnic minority guerrilla armies called the Three Brotherhood Alliance, announced Tuesday that it would also implement a monthlong unilateral cease-fire.
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