Rains add to misery in quake-hit Myanmar as death toll rises to 3,471

Heavy rains have lashed parts of earthquake-hit Myanmar, complicating relief efforts and raising the risk of disease as the death toll from the powerful quakes that struck the country on March 28 rose to at least 3,471.

Aid workers in the hard-hit city of Mandalay, near the epicentre of the earthquake, said on Sunday that rains and winds hit tent camps in the area overnight and in the morning, soaking survivors and their belongings.

More bouts of rain were expected later in the day, while temperatures were also forecast to climb to 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The weather is very extreme,” Tun Tun, a specialist with the United Nations Development Programme, told the AFP news agency.

Aid agencies have warned the combination of unseasonable rains and extreme heat could cause outbreaks of disease, including cholera, among quake survivors, who are camping in the open.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit a wide swath of Myanmar, home to 50 million people, causing significant damage to six regions and states, including the capital, Naypyidaw.

It left many areas without power, telephone or mobile phone connections, and damaged roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess. It also worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis triggered by the country’s civil war that has internally displaced more than three million people and left nearly 20 million in need, according to the UN.

State media in the military-led country now say the earthquake has caused 3,471 deaths and injured 4,671 people, while 214 remain missing.

It has damaged some 5,223 buildings, 1,824 schools, 4,817 pagodas and temples, 167 hospitals and clinics, 169 bridges, 198 dams and 184 sections of the country’s main highway.

Damage has been particularly severe in the city of Sagaing near the epicentre, as well as in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher, who is in Mandalay, described the scale of the damage as “epic” and said survivors, who are “traumatised and fearful”, need food, water, shelter and electricity urgently.

In a video posted to X, Fletcher noted the quake had brought devastation to communities that were already in crisis. “It’s a compounding crisis,” he said. “It’s earthquake, on top of conflict, on top of huge existing need.”

[Aljazeera]