Powerful earthquake hits Myanmar and Thailand, at least 150 killed and hundreds more injuredhttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/earthquake-myanmar-thailand-77-bangkok-tremor-rcna198515BANGKOK — A 7.7-magnitude earthquake centered in Myanmar reverberated across Southeast Asia on Friday, with the scale of death and destruction slowly coming into view in the war-ravaged nation, where the military government maintains a tight hold on information.
The earthquake occurred around 1:30 p.m. local time (2:30 a.m. ET) at a depth of 6 miles near Mandalay, the second-largest city in Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed 11 minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.
The USGS warned on Friday that “high casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread.” According to a predictive analysis based on the strength and depth of the earthquake, USGS estimated that more than 1000 people may have been killed, with a death toll over 10,000 a strong possibility.
Myanmar’s ruling military general, Min Aung Hlaing, said the death toll was at least 140 people, with hundreds more injured, according to Reuters. He added that those numbers are likely to rise.
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In neighboring Thailand, at least ten people were confirmed to have been killed, with at least 100 more missing, according to city officials. The death toll is expected to rise.
The large fallen building being shown in news articles I've seen is in Bangkok, some 700 miles from Mandalay, where the quake occurred. Roughly midway between Bangkok and Mandalay is Thailand's second largest city, Chiang Mai, population 1.2 million. WRT Myanmar (Burma) Its three largest cities, one being Mandalay, are all closer to the epicenter than Chiang Mai. Myanmar's largest city is Yangon (Rangoon), and it third largest is the capital, Naypyidaw. Taken together, USGS' guesstimate of up to 10,000 dead may be optimistic, though the chances of the government of Myanmar giving good-faith death toll numbers are not great.
The authoritarian government of Myanmar is both racist (against ethnic minorities) and religiously bigoted (against Muslims in the country's west and Christians in the country's east). The ethnic groups in the east, many of whom are also Christians, seem to be in the earthquakes destructive path (Mandalay - Bangkok), so the Myanmar government is not likely to give a @#$% about deaths in eastern Myanmar. As to destruction in western Myanmar,
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