In the grey stillness of early Monday morning, the earth roared.

A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake ruptured beneath the borderlands of China and Myanmar, jolt­ing millions from sleep and plunging whole towns into chaos.

The quake struck at a shallow depth, making the trembling all the more violent at the surface, and its epicentre lay in the rugged mountains between China’s Yunnan province and Myanmar’s northern Shan State. World Vision+2Wikipedia+2

In the border city of Ruili in Yunnan, China, windows shattered and walls cracked. One survivor described the moment: “It felt like the earth was breathing,” he said.

“Glass shattered everywhere. We ran outside without shoes.” Across the border, villagers in Shan State heard a sound they likened to thunder beneath the ground; then the world turned dark. Wikipedia

Because the quake struck in the early hours, most families were asleep; the darkness amplified the terror. Entire neighbourhoods spilled into the streets, wrapped in blankets, bare­foot, clutching frightened children. In Yunnan, broken power lines and failing phone networks only added to the confusion as hospitals switched to emergency power and ambulances rushed in the injured. World Vision+1

Already overwhelmed, medical staff in the worst-hit zones mobilised quickly. In Myanmar’s Mandalay and Sagaing regions, triage tents sprouted outside crumbling hospitals where floors buckled and ceilings fell. One doctor reported: “We’re beyond capacity. Every nurse, every volunteer is working.” World Vision+1