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Bangkok: When I first sat here on the steps of JJ Mall in Bangkok on Saturday, it was not yet a day since the tower across the road collapsed. The steps were coated in a thick layer of fine dust, blasted by the violence of 30-plus storeys of crashing concrete and steel.
The eight-lane road and median strip was a staging ground for thousands of rescuers, emergency services, military, volunteers and cooks.
Thai army soldiers stand guard as rescuers work at the site of an under-construction high-rise building that collapsed on Friday.
Thai army soldiers stand guard as rescuers work at the site of an under-construction high-rise building that collapsed on Friday.Credit: AP
Journalists and photographers, hundreds from around the world, crowded around anyone of vague political authority, craning ears against the clamour of whistles, megaphones and machinery to catch news of a miracle.
We are still waiting for that miracle.
I’ve been looking at this mound for days now. Those poor people trapped inside. What they endured, where they might be. Looking for signs of a hollow elevator shaft or stairwell, where someone may have feasibly fallen with a water bottle.
Some of the families I’ve spoken to still hold out hope. This was bolstered on Thursday when rescuers revealed they had detected a faint voice, believed to be that of a woman. They asked for three knocks, and got three faint knocks in response. But access remained difficult, and the heat was again sweltering.
There may be close to 100 dead in there. They are construction workers, many of them low-skilled migrants in Thailand for opportunity.
We are very near the famous Chatuchak markets. Walking north along Kamphaeng Phet 2 Rd, the first thing that strikes you is the extent of the destruction – a pile of concrete and twisted metal four-plus storeys high and as wide as a soccer pitch. You can see the awe in the faces of tourists, their foreheads crinkling, eyes widening, turning to their partners and grasping for phones. A grey mountain in chaotic north Bangkok.
The second thing is the sheer totality of the collapse. Other buildings have cracks, only this one is rubble.
The consortium that was building the tower is ITD-CREC, which includes floundering construction giant Italian-Thai Development and the China Railway No. 10 company. Industry Minister Akanat Promphan was “taken aback” when he examined some of the collapsed tower’s steel. Samples have since failed tests.
Tonight, a Wednesday, is the first time I’ve come to the site after dark. Great spotlights illuminate the wafting clouds of dust invisible during the day. The pile is marginally smaller, though “marginal” is thousands of tonnes. Most of the reduction has come in the last day or so as the crews move to a so-called “second phase”.
Giant mechanical claws that were once prodding at the pile lest they caused further collapse are hacking and ripping, shooting sparks into the sky. The bustling staging area has been cleared and the road reopened to traffic.
The steps beneath me are shiny clean.
Rescuers work at the Sky Villa Condo that collapsed In Friday’s earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar.
Rescuers work at the Sky Villa Condo that collapsed In Friday’s earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar.Credit: AP
Writing as I have done on these steps in Bangkok, I am painfully aware the scene before me is replicated many times over in neighbouring Myanmar, which bore the epicentre of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake. More than 3000 are confirmed dead there. Many thousands more are expected to be added to that tally in coming days, weeks and beyond.
Few countries could handle such a calamity, and certainly not Myanmar. It has been embroiled in a multi-front civil war since a 2021 military coup, and is a bona fide economic basket case. Unlike the highly organised and hierarchical search-and-recovery effort in Bangkok, in Myanmar, ordinary people are digging for their loved ones and neighbours by hand.
Revered pagodas have collapsed, killing hundreds of Buddhist monks. People are sleeping rough, having lost their homes or being too scared to go back inside. Electricity and telecommunications are shot.
And “the military ... was mostly missing from the picture,” reported not-for-profit think tank, the Crisis Group. “Rescue efforts were slow-going, and most of those trapped in the fierce summer heat had perished before they could be extricated.”
Credible reports have emerged that despite the devastation wrought by the earthquake, the junta has continued to bomb resistance areas, including some affected by the earthquake.
Getting into the most-affected regions of Myanmar’s interior has so far been difficult for international aid groups and impossible for foreign journalists.
We are thankful for the work of experts, NGOs and the brave local journalists, photographers and ordinary citizens who have allowed our mastheads to show Australians some of the catastrophe unfolding in Myanmar’s interior.
On Tuesday night, a junta spokesman finally replied to one of the many messages I have sent since last week: “Journalist visas are not available.”
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Zach Hope is South-East Asia correspondent. He is a former reporter at the Brisbane Times.Connect via email.