Myanmar: One month on - Stories of survival from earthquake survivors

Ma Win Win

My husband and I were having dinner when it (the earthquake) started. He ran to find our son and fell between the kitchen and the main house. As he fell, the red bricks on top fell one by one. When it all crumbled, I didn’t know what to do.

My head felt like it was burning. Another big stone hit my head. When the shaking was over, a big stone from the house fell and hit my head again. 

When the earthquake hit, five people were trapped inside: my sister’s husband, my sister, a little brother, my child and a worker. I was the first to escape. Then my brother-in-law escaped. After he got out and my father got back, they rescued my son – it took five hours to dig him out of the rubble. They found my son wrapped in my sister's arms. She did not survive. And I lost my husband too. My child is too young to lose his father.

We who survived were injured. I had severed the arteries in my wrist. I went to Mandalay and went to the hospital and clinic right away, and they did a surgery. I still can’t bend or stretch my hand and couldn't work.  I came to the clinic today to see how my hand was. My child has been very scared since. 

I’m afraid it will happen again. I just want my husband back.

Thein Zaw 

On 28 March, my wife, my daughter and me were all there on the 4th floor making cakes and samosas for the next day. I was about to open the shop when I heard a loud bang. 

To be honest, we first thought it was a mine or a bomb. We came here from the conflict zone; it sounded so familiar. 

Then the Buddha statue fell, my wife said: "Earthquake, earthquake, earthquake, sit down.” I have only one leg - we had a motorcycle accident 2,5 years ago. I have learned to run with only one leg, but I kept thinking "we are on the 4th floor that is too far, we can’t run”. 

I protected my daughter and my wife protected me. The house was shaking. When the first earthquake stopped, we tried to get out, a glass jar fell and pressed on my leg, I could not get up. We had to move things to get out of the house. 

When the aftershock hit, we were on the road in a rickshaw – we wanted to go home. We are renting an apartment. The house was still there, so we all went home.  

Many buildings in our neighborhood have collapsed. There were not enough ambulances. We were able to help carry the sick and the dead with our tricycle. We did what we could. When we see those collapsed buildings, we feel very bad.
 
My daughter’s hand was slightly injured. But when she hears a loud sound now, she wants to run. Her heart is beating fast in her chest, and she’s very scared. She used to want to live in a big building with 3 or 4 floors, but now she feels very scared after this earthquake. 

What we worry about most at the moment is that many people are saying that there is a storm coming. 

Khin Myo Khaing

My youngest daughter has a cough, so I came to the clinic to get her looked at. My sister and I came to the clinic together, she is pregnant. After the earthquake she was not sure that everything was ok, so she came for a check-up. 

On 28 March, we had visitors at our house, we were in the kitchen making rice and frying sigh cakes for them. When the earthquake started, I first thought it was the rain. From the kitchen I called out to my mother: "Mom, the rain is coming, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining." Then I realized that it wasn't rain, it was an earthquake. 

I was so worried for my 4,5-month-old baby in the other room. My mother said, "don't run, I'll take care of the baby." Then my sister-in-law called out as well, "Don't run, sit down." I sat down in the kitchen with my 6-year-old daughter, we almost fell to the ground. The wooden chair we had just been sitting on tumbled and hit my head, but I was lucky. 

I'm 35 years old and have never experienced such a violent earthquake.