1 day ago
5
Mandalay:
The powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake, which killed around 1700 people in Myanmar, has unleashed energy equivalent to over 300 atomic bombs combined, according to a leading American geologist.
"The force that a quake like this releases is about 334 atomic bombs," geologist Jess Phoenix told CNN.
Ms Phoenix also warned that aftershocks from the quake, which struck Myanmar on Friday, "could persist for months." She noted that this would happen because the Indian tectonic plate continues to crash with the Eurasian plate beneath Myanmar.
The geologist further noted that there could be hindrances in grasping the full extent of the catastrophe as the devastation in Myanmar will only be worsened by the country's civil war.
"What would normally be a difficult situation becomes almost impossible," she said.
Rescue Operations Continue In Myanmar
Rescue operations continued in Mandalay and other areas in Myanmar after the deadly earthquake, but hopes of finding more survivors in the rubble are fading amid difficult conditions -- with temperatures expected to reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Some residents spent a third night sleeping in the open, with aftershocks continuing to rock the central Myanmar city of more than 1.7 million people over the weekend.
The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification, news agency AFP reported.
A desperate scene unfolded at a collapsed apartment block in Myanmar's second biggest city on Sunday evening, when rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under the rubble for more than 55 hours. They amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out, she was pronounced dead.
"We tried everything to save her," one of the medical responders told AFP, but she had lost too much blood from the amputation.
Muslim worshipers, meanwhile, gathered near a destroyed mosque in the city on Monday morning for the first prayer of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Funerals for hundreds of victims are also expected to take place on Monday.
The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with some of the worst destruction seen in central Myanmar.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal Sunday for more than $100 million to help victims.
The world's largest humanitarian network said needs were growing by the hour as rising temperatures and the approaching monsoon season increase the risk of "secondary crises".
The challenges facing the Southeast Asian country of over 50 million people were immense even before the earthquake. Myanmar has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Reports have emerged of sporadic fighting even after the quake, with one rebel group telling AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit. Before Friday's quake, some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger.
English (US) · 