The scale of devastation in central Myanmar is unlike anything rescue workers or medics have seen before, even in a country that has endured more than four years of fierce conflict.
In Sagaing, buildings have collapsed almost everywhere after Friday’s earthquake. The provincial fire department was among the building destroyed, damaging all the rescue machinery and vehicles inside.
There are not enough rescue teams to retrieve the dead bodies, nor is there sufficient equipment to sift through debris.
“It’s been two days, and the smell is starting to emanate,” said Ma Ei, who has helped in the humanitarian efforts. “We haven’t received any help because of the internet and phone connection outages. At the moment, only the residents are involved in the rescue work, and we urgently need more rescue workers.”
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They also need dry food, drinking water and medicines, she said.
Sagaing’s hospital has also been damaged, forcing patients outside into the searing heat. Until Sunday there were no tents to protect them from the sun, said Ma Ei.
She saw about 200 patients who arrived at Sagaing hospital in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. “There may be more patients than this,” she said. Most have broken limbs and head injuries. “Some patients with pre-existing chronic diseases are suffering even more,” she added.
Ko Doe, a member of a local rescue team in Sagaing, said equipment had been damaged in the quake, but that his team began work “as soon as we received some machinery from the government, and did not stop until yesterday morning”. Even with the extra supplies, however, they have only four cranes for the whole township.
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Rescue teams are battling with supply shortages, power outages, connection disruptions and broken roads. They are also working under a repressive military junta. Generals seized power in a coup in 2021, triggering a spiralling conflict. The military has suffered humiliating losses in its battle against an armed resistance made up of civilian groups that formed after the coup to fight for the return of democracy, and ethnic armed groups that have long sought independence.
Airstrikes, a daily occurrence as the regime tries to stamp out opposition, continued even after the earthquake on Friday. In military-controlled areas, the junta routinely arrests anyone it suspects of opposing its rule, and people live in fear of being rounded up or forcibly conscripted to fight for it.
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“Some rescue workers do not dare to give help because they are afraid of being arrested,” said a local person in Sagaing town who asked not to be named.
The man added that his friend had been admitted to a military hospital, a prospect many civilians would want to avoid. The public hospital was overrun. “He could have died if he was not sent because gangrene had set in in his wound,” the person said.
Sagaing patients who require more complex treatment would normally be sent to Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city, which has the largest hospital in the region. Roads and bridges have been badly damaged, however, and even if they make it, the city’s general hospital is badly overstretched.
“I am middle-aged and I’ve experienced a lot of incidents, but never been busy like this before. This is very severe,” said a doctor at Mandalay general hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He remembers standing in the city centre after the quake: “Wherever I looked, east, west, south, north, I saw collapsed buildings and only dust,” he said. One medic was knocked off their feet while doing surgery because the shaking was so violent.
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All patients at Mandalay hospital have been evacuated and are being treated outside. Those unable to manage the intense heat have been placed near an entrance, so they can be easily moved. Some patients have been sent home because they are too traumatised to stay near the hospital building, fearing the collapsed ceilings and broken tiles, he said.
The UN has warned of “a severe shortage of medical supplies” including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines and tents for health workers.
The doctor at Mandalay hospital said supplies had not yet run out. “We can provide necessary IV drips and injections,” he said, adding that they also had blood supplies. But it was less clear the hospital had enough resources for the surgeries needed by patients, he said.
In areas outside the main cities, the situation appears worse. In Sagaing, Ei Hnin Phway said aid had yet to arrive. “We can’t even post updates on Facebook about what happening,” she said, citing the bad connections.
Ko Doe said his team had recovered 190 bodies so far, but he believed many more remained trapped. Work continued urgently on Sunday. His team was due to attend a monastery, a Buddhist summer school, a private school and a nunnery school, where bodies remained trapped, he said. Many were children.
“The chances of survival are very low,” he said. – Guardian
