SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
In Myanmar, state-run media now say that more than 1,600 people are dead after an earthquake in the center of the country. The U.S. Geological Survey says that Friday's quake registered 7.7 in magnitude. It was so powerful that a skyscraper under construction in the Thai capital of Bangkok, 600 miles to the south, collapsed. Dozens of people were buried. The epicenter of the quake was roughly 10 miles from Myanmar's second-biggest city, Mandalay. That's home to some 1.5 million people. Michael Sullivan is in Chiang Rai, Thailand, and joins us now. Michael, thanks for being with us.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: Surely in the evening where you are. What do we know about rescue efforts?
SULLIVAN: Well, it's hard getting information from Myanmar because of the military government's severe restrictions on internet access and other means of communication since the 2021 coup. But reports that are leaking out, Scott, are pretty grim. Here's a teacher from Pyinmana on the outskirts of the capital, Naypyidaw. He's helping with the relief effort but doesn't want to be named because he's afraid of the military.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Burmese).
SULLIVAN: "Right now, firefighters, police, the Red Cross and volunteers are taking bodies from the rubble," he says, "but we don't have enough equipment, not enough machinery, and that's why the rescue work is very hard." He says he reckons about 80% of the town has been totally destroyed and says the death toll just in his town is at 200 and counting. Now, that's in a town about 150 miles south of Mandalay. The city you mentioned, only 10 miles from the epicenter, a city of over a million people, and images coming from there show pancaked buildings everywhere, and rescue efforts hampered, workers say, by the same lack of equipment and enough people to help.
SIMON: Historically, Myanmar's military has been suspicious of outside intervention, but have they asked for help now?
SULLIVAN: Surprisingly, they have. Here's junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in a televised address last night.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIN AUNG HLAING: (Speaking Burmese).
SULLIVAN: So here he's saying Myanmar will welcome foreign aid from anywhere, and some has already begun to arrive from neighboring India and China. Now, in past disasters, the military ignored offers of help or severely restricted it. Most egregiously, Scott, in 2008, when Cyclone Nargis struck, and Western nations offered to use their navies and helicopters to ferry in relief supplies, the military ignored them and slow-walked visas for foreign aid workers, and more than 140,000 people ended up dying. I think the military asking for help this time is probably a sign they realize just how bad the situation is.
SIMON: The death toll continues to climb. We're still just two days in. Any idea of how bad it might get?
SULLIVAN: Well, I mean, it's impossible to say, really, but modeling by the USGS estimates the death toll from a quake as powerful as this in an area like this is likely to surpass 10,000, with a strong possibility it could go much, much higher. And I have to stress how ill-prepared the country is for dealing with something this awful. Four years of civil war since the coup has left the public health system in tatters, and aid distribution is severely restricted by the conflict as well. In a country where nearly 20 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N., which says more than 15 million, or roughly a third of the population, are facing acute food insecurity. And, Scott, that was even before this quake.
SIMON: Reporter Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Michael, thanks so much.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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