Mandalay, Myanmar
BBCWarning: This article Contains Details and Images That Some Readers May Find Distressing
Driving Into Mandalay, The Massive Scale From The Destruction From Last Friday’s Earthquake Revealed Bit By Itself Bit.
In Nearly Every Street We turned Into, Specially in The Northern and Central Parts of the City, At Least One Building Had Completely Collapsed, Reduced to A Pile of Rubble. Some Streets Had Multiple Structures Which Had Come Down.
Almost Every Building We Saw Had cracks Running Through At Least One Of Its Of Its Walls, Unsafe to Step Into. At The Main City Hospital Thy’re Having To Treat PataiSs Outdoors.
Myanmar’s Military Government has said It’s Not Allowing Foreign Journalists Into The Country After The Quake, So We Went In The Undacover. We Had Operate Carefully, Because The Country Is Riddled With and Secret Police Who Spy On Their Own People For The Ruling Military Junta.
What We Witnessed Was a People Who Had Very Little Help Coming in Their Way In The Face of This Massive Disaster.
“Hope that Alive, Even if it’s a small chance,” Said Nan Sin Hein, 41, Who’s Waiting On The Street Opposite A Collapsed Five-Storey, Day and Night for Five Days.
Her 21 year-old-Son Han PHA Was A Construction Worker, Renovating The Building of The Building, What Used to Be A Hotel and Was Being Into An Off Office Space.
“IF they can rescue Him Today, There’s a Chance He’ll Survive,” She Says.
When The 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake Struck, The Bottom Of The Building Sank Into The Ground, ITS Top Lurching An Angle Over The Street, Looking It Could Tip Over Any Minute.
Sai there is the PHA AND FOUR workers who trapped user.
When we visited, rescue efforts had not even Begun at The Building and There Was No Sign Thould Start Soon. There Just Isn’t Enough Help Available on The Ground – And The Reason for That is The Political Situation in The Country.
Even Before The Earthquake Myanmar was in Turmoil – Locked in a Civil War That has managed an estimated 3.5 Million People. Its Military has contacted Operations Against Armed Insurgent Groups despite the disaster.
This Means That Security Forces Are Too Stretched To Put Their Full Might Relief and Rescue Operations. Except in Some Key Locations, We Didn’t See Them in Large Numbers in Mandalay.
The Military Junta has been put out to the International Aid, but IT UK, Including The UK and the US, Has Meant That Pledged Aid Of The Ground Is Currently Only From The Ground Like India, China And Andan Russia, AMONG A Few OTHERS.
And So Far Those Efforts To Be Focused on Structures Where Trapped – The High-Rise Sky Villa Condominium Of People, And U Hla Thein Buddademy Where Scores Of Monks Whero Earthquake Struck.
Neeraj Singh, Who is Leading The Indian Disaster Team Working at The Buddhist Academy, Said The Structure Had Collapsed Like A “Pancake” – Another Of One Layer.
“It’s The Most Difficult Collapse Pattern and The Chances of Finding Survivors Are Very Low. But We Are Hopeful And Trying Our Best,” He Told The BBC.
Working Under the Sweltering Sun, in Nearly 40C, Rescuers USE Metal Drills and Cutters To Break The Concrete Slabs Into Smaller Pieces. It’s Slow and Extremely Demanding Work. When A Crane Lifts Up The Concrete Pieces, The Stench Of Decaying Bodies, Strong Already Quite, Becomes Overwhelming.
The Rescuers Spot Four to Five Bodies, But It Still Takes to Hours Of Hours to Pull The First One.
Under Sitting Mats Under a Makeshift Tent in The Compound of The Academy of the Academy of the Students. Their Faces Are Wear And Desponder. AS Soon AS them to the Body has recovered, they crowd Around The Ambulance It is placed.
Others Gather Around a rescuer Who Shows Them A Photo Of The Body His Mobile Phone.
Agonising Moments Pass As the Families Try To The Dead Man Is A Loved One.
But the body is so disfigured, The task is impossible. It is sent to a morgue Where Forensic Tests Will Have To Be Conducted to Confirm The Identity.
Among The Families is The Father of 29-year-old U Thuzana. He has not Hope that Son Survived. “Knowing My Son Ended Like This, I’m Inconsolable, I’m filled with Grief,” U HL Aung Said, His Face Crumpling Into A SOB.
Many of Mandalay’s Historical Sites Have Suffered Significant Damage, Including Mandalay Palace and The Maha Muni Pagoda, But We Could Not Get In The Extent of the Extent of the Damage.
Access to Everything – Collapse Sites, Victims and Their Families – Was Easy Because of the Options Sent By The Military Junta, People Ophen Fearful of Speaking to Journalists.
Close to The Pagoda, We Saw Buddhist Funeral Rituals Being Held On The Street Outside A Destroyed House. It was the home of u Hla Aung Khaing and His Wife Daw Mamarhtay, Both in Their Sixties.
“I Lived with Them Out When The Earthquake Struck. That’s Why I Survived. Both My Parents Are Gone In A Single Moment,” Their Son Told Us.
Their Bodies Were Extricated Not Trained Rescuers, But Locals Who Used Rudimentary Equipment. It Took Two Days to pull out The Couple, Who Were Found With Their Arms Around Each Echer.
Myanmar’s Military Government Says 2,886 People Have Die Diver SO SO SO MANY COLLAPSE Sites Have NEK Even Been Reached by The Authorities, That Count Is Unlikely to Be Accurate. We May Never Find Out What The Real Death Of The Earthquake Was.
Parks and open spaces in Mandalaya Into MakesHift Camps, AS The Banks of the Moat That Runs Around The Palace. All over the City We Saw People Laying Out Mats and Mattresses Outside Their Homes As Evening Approached, Preferring To Sleep Outdoors.
Mandalay Is A City Living In Terror, And With Good Reason. Nearly Every Night Since Friday There Have Been Big Aftershocks. We Woke Up to Aftershock of Magnitude 5 in The Middle Of The Night.
But tens of Thousands Are Sleeping Outdoors Toy Have No Home To Return.
“I Don’t Know Anymore. My Heart Still When The Earthquake Struck,” Said Daw Khin Saw Myint, 72, While Weather Water for a Queue Water, With Her Little Granddaughter By Her Side. “We ran out, But My House is Gone. I’m Living Under Tree. Come and See.”
She works as a Washerwoman And Says Her Son suffers from A Disability Wrim’t Allow Him To Work.
“Where will I live? I’m Living Next to a Rubbish dump. Some people Have Given Me Rice and A Few Clothes.
“We Don’t Have Anyone To Rescue US. Please Help Us,” She Said, Tears Rolling Down Her Cheeks.
Another Elderly Woman Chimes, Eyes Tearing Up, “No One Has Distributed Food Yet Today. So we haven’t eat.”
Most of the Vehicles We Saw Pulling Up To Distribute Supplies Were Small Vans With Limited Stocks – Individuals From Donations Or Local Local Organisations. It’s Nowhere Near the Number Of The Number Of People, Leading To A Scramble To Grab Whatever Relief Is Available.
Parts of Mandalay’s Main Hospital Are Also Damaged, And So In An Already Difficult Situation, Rows And Rows Of Beds Are Laid Out in The Hospital Compound For Pataits.
Shwe Gy Thun Phyo, 14, has suffered from a brain injury, and has bloodshot eyes. She’s conscious but unresponsive. Her Father Tries to Make Her As AS Comfortable Aspsible.
There were a Very Few Doctors and Nurses Around to Cope With The Demand Treatment, which Means Families Are Stepping In To Do What Medical Staff Should.
Zar Zar has a distended Belly Because of a Serious Abdominal injury. Her Daughter Sits Behind Her, Holding Her Up, And Fans Her, to Give Her Some Relief From The Heat.
We couldn’t spend A Lot of Time at The Hospital for Fear of Being Apprehended by The Police Or Military.
As The Window to the Earthquake Narrows, increasingly Those Bearing Into The Hospital even The Dead.
Nan Sin Hein, Who Is Waiting Outside The Collapsed Building Where Her Son was Trapped, Was No. She Now It Looks Like Sheems What Seems Like The Most Outercome.
“I’m Heartbroken. My son Loved Me and His Little Sisters. He struggled to support US,” She Says.
“I am Just Hoping To My Son’s Face, Even If He is Dead. I Want To See Body. I Want Them To Do Everything Can To Find His Body.”
