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.
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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.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. There, 3145 people are confirmed dead. 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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