CGTN Europe spoke to Marie Manrique, IFRC Myanmar Acting Head of Delegation, about the response to the deadly and devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake.
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00:00Well, Marie Manrique is the acting head of delegation for the Red Cross in Myanmar.
00:04Welcome to the program, Marie. Thank you for being with us.
00:07So tell us where you were and what happened when you felt the earthquake hit.
00:13So I'm based in Yangon, which is in the south of the country.
00:17When the earthquake hit, it was actually midday.
00:20So in the Myanmar Red Cross Society building, all of us felt the first earthquake.
00:28We were quite shaken by it. We were seeing that chairs were moving.
00:33Being emergency responders and having procedures, we got up and evacuated the building.
00:38We're talking about approximately 200 people who work in the Myanmar Red Cross Society building
00:43in Yangon. We evacuated into the streets. When we went out into the streets of Yangon,
00:48we could also see that people were quite concerned outside of what was happening.
00:53As you know, in any sort of earthquake, people have to be concerned about aftershocks.
00:58There was a large aftershock 12 minutes after, and this is the sort of thing that
01:04has continued for several hours after in the northwest of the country.
01:08But I myself, unfortunately, all of the team of the Myanmar Red Cross Society
01:14and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society,
01:17there was no material damage to the building or any sort of injuries.
01:23You must be pleased about that. I wonder what sort of damage you have seen, though,
01:27perhaps where you are and also heard about in the wider country.
01:32Well, as you mentioned, so where I am in Yangon, of course, there has been small scale damage,
01:38but it's nothing compared to the northwest of the country, which where the epicenter was
01:43close to, as mentioned, Mandalay, the second largest city of the country, as well as Sagaing.
01:48Sagaing is the region that has the largest internally displaced population in the country
01:53at this time. So we're looking at a situation not only of the collapse of buildings,
01:58but also the collapse of people's houses, livelihoods, public institutions, infrastructure.
02:06You mentioned the bridge that already has been collapsed. We know of other bridges,
02:11main thoroughfares that have also been damaged. So this is a very serious
02:16disaster that we're taking very seriously in our response.
02:19And with those collapsed buildings, that sadly means piles of rubble, perhaps
02:24people buried under that rubble. What are you hearing about the rescue efforts that are taking
02:28place? Well, the rescue efforts started immediately. So I'm talking to you from Yangon,
02:34where it's currently a little past 11 at night. We know that rescue efforts will continue
02:40throughout the night. We have always in an earthquake of this type, a small window of
02:45actually to rescue people and that rescue is actually being done. So we have the Myanmar
02:51Red Cross Society working with other local institutions on that, doing that search and
02:55rescue and pre-hospital care, as well as just attending to people. We know Myanmar is a country
03:01where people really work together and their first responders coming from local communities to work
03:07with one another. So late at night, as you say, people presumably scared to go back into their
03:12homes. What are those people doing now? Where are they going to spend the night?
03:16So as you mentioned, this is a great concern. Not only people scared to go back into their homes,
03:21but homes that have been damaged. In that case, people are staying in what would be makeshift
03:27areas in public spaces. We would often see in earthquakes of this size that people
03:33try to gather in large public areas so that they're outside away from buildings. And that
03:39is what you will see until, and I really want to emphasize this, until we continue with this
03:44emergency response where shelter will continue to be a need going forward.
03:49This is still a developing situation. Obviously, we don't know the full extent of it yet,
03:54but you work for the Red Cross. What's needed most now to help?
04:00What is needed most now to help? I can say is we're looking at probably emergency health needs
04:05will be needed as well as water and sanitation. Any large scale disaster, earthquake actually,
04:12will always have that. But as I mentioned, shelter will continue to be a need. And we
04:16need to also focus on what would be the response related to people's livelihoods and food security.
04:23So we as the Red Cross, Red Crescent, international or international movement
04:27are really focused on those main areas in support of the Miami Red Cross Society,
04:32which has responded since the beginning of this emergency.
04:35Well, we wish you all the best in that. Marie Manrique from the Red Cross in Myanmar.
04:39Thank you very much for joining us.