As crucial hours run out after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that Myanmar shook on Friday, rescue teams fight against time and the continuous replicas in the search for survivors between the debris. The devastation extends to Mandalay, the second largest city in the country and only 17.2 kilometers of the epicenter of the earthquake. There have collapsed dozens of buildings and several witnesses have described the city as an “outdoor cemetery.” At the moment, 2,056, while the injured approach 4,000, according to a statement from the Board that governs Myanmar. This figure is expected to increase considerably in the next few hours. The tragedy is aggravated by the imminent arrival of the 72 -hour threshold, the time in which one has reasonable possibilities of surviving.
For the third consecutive night, many Mandalay residents have slept outdoors, fearful of the continuous shakes that the city has continued to experience during the weekend and that have caused new scenes of panic. “Our building has crazy, so I do not dare to return to my home. Everyone is living in the streets,” says Aye, a survivor in Mandalay, to the International Plan teams displaced in the area, with which this newspaper has been put in touch.
Rescue work has advanced this Monday morning, but they are being hindered by suffocating heat, with temperatures close to 40 degrees. Even so, hopeful news arrives, such as the rescue of a woman who had remained around 60 hours under the ruins of the Gran Wall Hotel, or that of four people, including a pregnant woman and a child, who were caught in the Sky Villa condominium. The authorities say they are in stable condition
“We know that lifeguards continue to draw corpses among the rubble,” says Federica Franco, general coordinator of doctors without borders in Myanmar. “At the moment we have partial figures of about 1,000 dead and more than 2,000 injured only in the Mandalay region, but unfortunately we know that these figures will increase. We have received photos and testimonies of schools, monasteries, homes, as well as hospitals and government buildings completely destroyed and hundreds of displaced people.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that tragedy represents a maximum level emergency and has urgently requested eight million dollars (around 7.3 million euros) to intensify relief operations in the next 30 days. In addition, he has warned that the high number of injured with trauma runs a serious risk of infection due to the limited surgical capacity of the country.
“WHO has classified this crisis as an emergency of grade 3, the highest level of activation within its emergency response framework,” said the UN agency in a statement. “Preliminary evaluations indicate a high number of victims and traumatic injuries, with urgent emergency care needs. The supply of electricity and running water remains interrupted, which makes access to health services difficult and increases the risk of outbreaks of diseases transmitted by water and food,” said the WHO.
For its part, the International Federation of Red Cross societies and the red crescent warns of the enormous risk that high temperatures and proximity of the Monzones season unleash “secondary crises” that aggravates the situation. The world’s largest humanitarian network has also launched an emergency plan for more than 92 million euros to attend victims.
Ancient Burma (about 54 million inhabitants) faces the crisis in a situation of extreme vulnerability. The Nation, one of the poorest in Asia, who perpetrated the current Military Board in power. Since then, Myanmar has been ravaged by a conflict that has displaced 3.5 million people, according to the UN, and has exacerbated poverty and food insecurity.
Despite the growing need to intensify emergency work after the powerful earthquake, the spiral of violence has not ceased. The Government of National Unity (NUG), which is declared legitimate authority in semi -lundestinity, and the UN Human Rights Office themselves ensure that the Burmese Army has continued to bombard some of the peoples affected by the earthquake and controlled by opposition militias. According to NUG sources consulted by this newspaper, seven combatants died in an air attack shortly after the tremors.
Missing in Bangkok
In Thailand, the other country where deaths have been reported after the tremor, all eyes are put in the rubble of a Bangkok skyscraper that was under construction and that collapsed as a castle of cards at the time of the shake. Rescuers continue to work tirelessly to try to find the 75 people who are believed are buried under the ruins. The governor of the Thai capital, Chadchart Sittipunt, has assured that they do not plan to surrender, despite the fact that the usual period to find survivors is about to expire.
“The search will continue after 72 hours because, in Türkiye, people who were trapped during a week survived,” he said. He also added that the scanners indicate that there could still be people alive under the remains of the building, and that tracker dogs are trying to locate their positions. “We have detected weak signs of life at various points,” he added. At the moment, 19 deaths have been confirmed in Thailand; 12 of the deceased were workers who were building this building, which was going to house the offices of the State Audit.
The Government has initiated an investigation to clarify the reasons for the collapse and determine if the tower design complied with the standards. Although some 170 properties suffered damage because of the earthquake, this is the only one in the entire city that has been shattered. The secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Pongpol Yodmuangcharoen, has advanced that there are doubts regarding the quality of the steel that was used in the construction. Local media report that on Monday several Bangkok buildings have been evacuated after vibrations and crunch notices were received.
After a few hours of confusion, the Thai Prime Minister, Paetongtran Shinawatra, has written on social networks that the cracks that had motivated the evacuations were “pre -existing” and has urged companies that have taken that measure to “communicate this type of decisions clearly and based on verified information from official government sources.” Paetongtran also said that, according to government scientists, the replicas of the earthquake in Myanmar “have no impact on Thai territory.”
