Myanmar earthquake death toll expected to exceed 3,000, but remarkable rescues still leave room for hope

CBS News

01-04-2025

Bangkok
— Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar's capital on Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent
earthquake that killed more than 2,000
people in the country, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war. The leader of Myanmar's ruling military junta said on state television Tuesday that it was assumed the death toll would exceed 3,000, according to the Reuters news agency.
General Min Aung Hlaing said there at least 441 people still missing after Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake.
Any hope of finding survivors was dwindling quickly, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned Tuesday.
"The time window for critical search and rescue is narrowing," OCHA's Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar Marcoluigi Corsi told reporters in Geneva via video link from Yangon. "Shelter, clean water, medicine are in short supply. People in affected areas spent the night in the open because there is no electricity or running water."
"The needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour," added Julia Rees, UNICEF's deputy representative for Myanmar. "The window for lifesaving response is closing. Across the affected areas, families are facing acute shortages of clean water, food, and medical supplies."
The World Health Organization said more than 10,000 buildings overall were known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar by the quake, which also rocked neighboring Thailand.
In the Thai capital Bangkok, the temblor toppled a high-rise building that was under construction, burying dozens of workers. Two bodies were pulled from the rubble on Monday but dozens were still missing. Overall, there were 20 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site. The fact that the skyscraper was the only large building to topple in Bangkok during the quake has drawn serious questions. Over the weekend officials
ordered an investigation
to determine whether design flaws, poor materials or failures in the inspection process could have been to blame.
In Myanmar, search and rescue efforts across the affected area paused briefly at midday on Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the dead.
The fire department in Naypyitaw said the 63-year-old woman was pulled on Tuesday from out of the rubble of a building in the capital 91 hours after she was buried when it collapsed around her during the quake. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours.
Myanmar's fire department said 403 people had been rescued in the country's second largest city Mandalay, and 259 bodies had been found so far. In one incident alone, 50 Buddhist monks who were taking a religious exam in a monastery were killed when the building collapsed and 150 more were thought to still be buried in the rubble on Tuesday.
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress was still slow with a lack of heavy machinery in many places.
The Myanmar military government's official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday that a team of Chinese rescuers saved four people the day before from the ruins of the Sky Villa, a large apartment complex that collapsed during the quake. They included a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who had been trapped for more than 60 hours.
The same publication also reported two teenagers were able to crawl out of the rubble of the same building to where rescue crews were working, using their cellphone flashlights to help guide them. The 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. The U.S. Embassy said an American team had been sent but hadn't yet arrived.
Multiple countries have pledged millions in aid to assist Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
U.N. agencies have raised the alarm about the shortage of drinking water, with concerns of cholera spreading. Many people were already lacking in basic medical care and standard vaccinations in Myanmar before the quake, and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure has raised the risk of disease outbreaks.
"It is really dire - the most immediate need is water, it is super hot out there...Water pipes and septic tanks have broken," said Julia Rees, UNICEF's Deputy Representative, via the video link. Shelter is also a major problem, especially with the monsoon season looming.
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 U.N.
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. 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."
"We are in a race against time to save lives," the NUG said in a statement. "Any obstruction to these efforts will have devastating consequences, not only due to the impact of the earthquake but also because of the junta's continued brutality, which actively hinders the delivery of lifesaving assistance."
It wasn't immediately clear whether the military has been impeding humanitarian aid. In the past, it initially refused to allow in foreign rescue teams or many emergency supplies after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which resulted in well more than 100,000 deaths. Even once it did allow foreign assistance, it was with severe restrictions.
In this case, however, the head of Myanmar's military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, pointedly said on the day of the earthquake that the country would accept outside help.
Tom Andrews, a monitor on rights in Myanmar commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said on X that to facilitate aid, military attacks must stop.
"The focus in Myanmar must be on saving lives, not taking them," he said.