On the 24th March an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Burma. The epicenter was 200 km away from Chiangmai. At that time I as sitting in a restaurant next to a Californian girl who had just flown in. Being experienced in earthquakes, she pointed out that the lights were swinging and suggested we might be having one. Seeing as I am completely unexperienced in earthquake, I just assumed the sense of the earth shifting was due to the dizziness I had been feeling all week due to my fever and strong medication so I told her, "Nah, it's just windy."
Then when all at the table realised that we really were having an earthquake (i.e the floorboards were shifting) we debated whether to run out or not. Kath, an Aussie girl, in classic style waved us all back to our seats saying, "It's just a small one."
At first the news only reported one death. Then a score more. Then personal eye-witness accounts started to trickle through suggesting that the real death toll was much higher than the Burmese government was acknowledging. This isn't a surprise since a couple of years ago there were over 130,000 deaths due to Cyclone Nargis and the government claimed there were only 79.
The government tried to prevent images being taken, but some people still managed to get some out and some of the photos and footage ended up in my hands. With this news the disaster relief group in my church started to take action, although no foreigners are allowed into the affected areas. In my role as media and communications I began to collect accounts of the damage and try to collate a truer picture of what was really going on and keep the different relief groups informed so we can co-ordinate better.
It's complicated and exhausting to try to keep up with the reports coming in, work out what is the best course of action with limited resources and and even finding a map to locate the villages was tricky. On the side, I have been trying to use the media to inform the Western world which seems to have mainly overlooked it. The Burmese government and world news reported only 75 dead but one girl said that in Tarley town alone there were 137 known dead two days after the earthquake. Out of Kya Ku Ni came one of the sadder stories- the church fell on the the youth group bible study and 30 died.
Images of the church.
The unofficial reports lead to an overall picture emerging showing 300 known dead at the moment, neglected mountain communities not receiving help, tainted water causing diarrhea, collapsed homes leaving survivors trying to shelter under tarpaulins in the rain and the Burmese army confiscating relief supplies.
This earthquake was of a greater magnitude than the one that hit Christchurch, New Zealand and it has killed more people and left more devastation in an area with far less resources to recover. As we see the major relief groups ham-strung by international diplomacy, it seems that it will be the local ministries and indigenous church networks that can make a difference on the grass roots level to these affected communities.
To read more about what happened, I have been writing damage reports at:
http://thehavenproject.net/24-march-2011-earthquake/ and
http://thehavenproject.net/burma-earthquake-update/
You can donate at these links.
A google map tracking damage reports
