NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — Soldiers carted away debris Monday from parts of military-run Myanmar where floods and landslides from Typhoon Yagi and monsoon rains earlier this month left more than 380 dead and 89 missing, according to reports in state-run media.
The death toll in Myanmar was higher than the combined total for all the other Southeast Asian countries affected by the devastating typhoon, which killed almost 300 people in Vietnam, 42 in Thailand and four in Laos, as well as 21 in the Philippines, according to the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military government, said during a weekend ceremony to accept cash donations for flood-affected areas that 384 people were killed and nearly 150,000 affected by the floods, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported.
Efforts to bring aid and tally the casualties and damage have been slow in part due to difficulties communicating with the affected areas.
Myanmar is wracked by a civil war that began in 2021 after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Independent analysts believe the ruling military controls much less than half of the country’s territory.
Another state newspaper, the Global New Light of Myanmar, reported Monday that military, police and fire brigade personnel were taking part in the cleanup of flood-hit areas, including in the capital Naypyitaw, as well as Shan States and Mandalay and Bago regions. They also were helping to repair roads and bridges.
It said the cleanup work was being done at Buddhist monasteries, schools, hospitals, clinics and government offices, and that medical teams were providing health care services.
According to a report issued Friday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs -- UNOCHA -- an estimated 887,000 people, including those already in displacement camps, were affected in 65 townships in central and eastern Myanmar,
There was widespread destruction of homes, water sources and electricity infrastructure, and schools, religious site and farmlands “have been severely damaged or completely collapsed,” the report said.
There was an urgent need for drinking water, food, medicine, clothing and shelter, the report said.
In this provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team on Sunday Sept.21, 2024, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, right, head of the military council, receives cash from Maung Weik, left, a construction magnate, during a donation ceremony for flooded areas, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (The Myanmar Military True News Information Team via AP)
In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team on Sunday, Sept.22, 2024, military soldiers and police help to clean flooded areas in Loikaw township, Kayah State, Myanmar. (The Myanmar Military True News Information Team via AP)
In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, military officials inspect while flood victims receive medical treatment from volunteers in Loikaw township, Kayah State, Myanmar. (The Myanmar Military True News Information Team via AP)
The co-founder of the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic said Monday the company zeroed in on the use of carbon fiber for the doomed vessel because the company wanted a lightweight, less costly submersible that did not need to be tethered to an expensive mother ship.
Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Stockton Rush, described the use of carbon fiber as “not a novel idea” and said “people have looked at that before.”
Sohnlein ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster in June 2023. Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded. Though Sohnlein left the Washington company years ago, he spoke in defense of its efforts in the aftermath of the submersible’s implosion.
On Monday, he testified that said no existing sub builders could meet the company’s requirements, necessitating the pivot to building its own subs. And he said the company worked closely with the Coast Guard and eventually moved the sub to Miami to get more diving days to be able to practice with it.
“There’s no way we would have moved the sub to Miami if we did not have the comfort level that the Coast Guard was going to be comfortable with what we were going to be doing,” Sohnlein said.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company. Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Sohlein also testified Monday that he left the company in 2013 as the company transitioned to engineering, which he described as a bigger strength of Rush's than his. He said it was a “fairly easy decision” for Rush to take over the company, but it was more difficult to decide whether to stay on at all.
Ultimately, Sohnlein said, he didn't feel it made sense for the company to continue paying him a salary of $120,000 for a reduced role. He said he maintained a minority stake in the company that still exists.
“It just didn't make sense financially to keep paying me that kind of salary when I wasn't going to be doing much other than overseeing business operations,” Sohnlein said, adding that it was “one of the hardest decisions I had to make” and he once thought it was going to be “the last job he ever had.”
Other witnesses expected to testify Monday included former OceanGate engineering director Phil Brooks and Roy Thomas of the American Bureau of Shipping. The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include more witnesses.
Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
In a still from from a video animation provided by the United States Coast Guard an illustration of the Titan submersible, right, is shown near the ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean, as June 18, 2023 communications between the submersible and the support vessel Polar Prince, not shown, are represented at left. (United States Coast Guard via AP)
Co-founder of Titan to testify before Coast Guard about submersible that imploded
This June 2023 image provided by Pelagic Research Services shows remains of the Titan submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Pelagic Research Services via AP)
Co-founder of Titan to testify before Coast Guard about submersible that imploded
