“… Mr. Trump said on Friday that the United States would offer aid to Myanmar,
telling reporters, “We’re going to be helping.” But the initial U.S. response has been muted.
Other countries, including China and India, have begun sending food, blankets and search teams to Myanmar, where modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests
the number of deaths is likely to surpass 10,000. But Myanmar’s government, controlled by a junta that overthrew the country’s elected government in 2021, is under heavy sanctions from the United States, Britain and others, and its isolation is expected to complicate the global response.
In the past, the United States would “almost invariably” have sent search teams and released money to nonprofit organizations to aid survivors, said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former director of U.S.A.I.D.’s foreign disaster assistance office.
“The first 24 to 48 hours after a major disaster are the time of peak frenzy, because that’s when you’re getting the search-and-rescue teams spun up and organizing the airlifts,” Mr. Konyndyk said. “But none of that’s happening.”
… “I’d love to see them pull back the teams that they’ve fired and really mount a serious response” to the earthquake, Mr. Konyndyk said.
But he added, “The fact that they fired everyone on the day this was all going on does not suggest there’s much seriousness about a real U.S. response.”
U.S. rescue teams have traditionally provided not only sophisticated equipment, but also expertise to assist local teams on search methods, Mr. Konyndyk said.
“When the donor that normally provides about 40 percent of global humanitarian financing leaves the field, no one else can really fill that gap,” he said, referring to America’s role in global relief efforts.
“The absence of the U.S. here is going to mean fewer live rescues of people who could be saved. Full stop.”
Myanmar’s military government said the death toll had reached 1,644, though that number is expected to rise significantly.
www.nytimes.com
