A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck north-east Burma on Thursday 24th March 2011 with a depth of just 6.2 miles (10km). According to the USGS the epicentre of the earthquake was 70 miles (110km) away from the city of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. The earthquake was also felt in Bangkok, Thailand and in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital.
According to official reports, 75 people are known to have died and this number is feared to rise over the next few days. Over 100 people were also injured during the earthquake.
Hundreds of people have been made homeless when over 200 poorly structured buildings collapsed. Government buildings have also collapsed along with numerous public buildings. Rescue workers are currently trying to find survivors amongst the collapsed buildings, however due to the remoteness of some villages the rescue effort is greatly being hindered.
The poor infrastructure is further making response to the disaster difficult. Several roads and bridges have been damaged during the earthquake. Access to remote areas is limited and destruction to the poor existing communication system has made it worse. According to World Vision, over 15,000 people could be affected by the disaster in the worse hit areas.
The town of Tachileik and the village of Shan are the worse affected areas, where numerous buildings have collapsed, several infrastructure damaged and there are also fears that the death toll can rise severely here.
The politics in Burma has previously affected the disaster response in the country and reports claim that the government is not willing to release much information about this disaster. This could again limit the effective response to the disaster.
The death toll is likely to rise further, as the full scale of the disaster becomes clear over the next few days. The full extent of the damage will also become visible.
By Saajeda Bandali
http://www.n-d-a.org/blog/natural-disaster-news/burma-earthquake-leaves-75-dead/
Location Map (Source: BBC)
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