Screams are fading, smell of death everywhere: Myanmar’s second-largest city reduced to graveyard as earthquake toll mounts

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Death’s smell clung heavy in the burning sun as grasping hands dug through piles of wreckage, hoping against hope for some sign of life beneath the rubble of Myanmar’s second-largest city, reported AP.

Two days since a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake had torn the nation asunder, the streets of Mandalay were a cemetery—bodies lying rotting in the blinding sun, survivors crying out for dead loved ones, and a nation on the verge of collapse.

The powerful earthquake devastated the region and killed over 1,600 people, and buried many more.

“It’s a nightmare. The city is destroyed. Dead bodies are all around. We hear screams beneath the wreckage, but we can’t reach them in time,” cried Kyaw Min, a resident volunteer, his hands raw and bleeding from digging for hours, reported AP.

The earthquake hit at midday on Friday, its epicenter in the vicinity of Mandalay, tearing apart structures, smashing highways, and collapsing the control tower at Naypyitaw’s airport—cutting lifelines for a nation already weakened by civil war.

The death toll has risen to more than 1,600, with 3,408 injured, but authorities worry that the actual figure may be thousands more. Entire villages are isolated, buried beneath landslides or trapped behind collapsed roads and bridges.

‘We are digging with our bare hands’

While heavy machinery is in short supply, the efforts of rescue rely on ordinary folk—families, neighbors, strangers—who labor in heat of 41°C (106°F), employing nothing but shovels, crowbars, and desperation as their tools. Aftershocks, most recently a 5.1 magnitude quake late Sunday afternoon, pushed frantic masses into the streets—only for them to relapse a short while later under the faint prospect of discovering something living.

“Hospitals are full. There is no medicine, no blood, no room,” said Cara Bragg, Myanmar manager for Catholic Relief Services. “People are dying on the streets because we can’t do anything for them.”

In the capital Naypyitaw, official targets of the relief efforts have included government buildings and military barracks at the expense of civilians. The wreckage of a hospital was shaken for 40 hours with a 70-year-old man being rescued alive from under the rubble by a Chinese rescue team—a fleeting instance of hope in the midst of unrelenting calamity.

‘The window is closing—we are running out of time’

Foreign assistance has started to trickle in, but it might be too little, too late. India sent two C-17 military aircraft with a field hospital and 120 staff, and China sent 135 rescuers and $13.8 million worth of emergency relief. Russia, Singapore, and Malaysia have also offered assistance, but with roads impassable and airports disabled, getting supplies in has become a logistical nightmare.

“More people die every minute,” a UN relief coordinator said. “The first 24 hours were crucial. Now, to survive is a miracle.”

Civil war, anarchy, and a shattered nation

Myanmar’s violent civil war has converted disaster into unimaginable horror. The military junta, engaged in vicious fighting with pro-democracy insurgents, has cut off aid routes, leaving millions of displaced civilians without food, water, or shelter—even before the earthquake struck.

“Airstrikes continue to occur. Individuals are being shelled while they are excavating for their loved ones,” said UN rights monitor Tom Andrews. “This is a war zone encased in a natural disaster.”

Neighboring Thailand saw the quake’s shockwaves bring down a Bangkok high-rise building in construction, killing 17 and leaving 83 missing—bodies still being recovered Sunday morning.

As Sunday night came, Mandalay’s 1.5 million citizens slept outdoors, too afraid to go back to shaky buildings. The smell of rot intensified. The wails of crying never ceased.

“This is hell on earth,” a rescuer whispered, his eyes streaked with sweat and tears. “And it’s only getting worse.”

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