A lifeline of hope was given to disaster hit Myanmar as 63-year-old woman miraculously found alive under wreckage of a collapsed building in Naypyitaw — nearly 91 hours after a massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the region. The death toll has risen to more than 2,700 as fears grow it could be as high as 3,000 given the damaged infrastructure and OMINOUS aftershocks for rescue teams.
The quake also shook Thailand, where it flattened whole neighborhoods and buried hundreds of people under rubble. In Mandalay, close to the epicenter, 50 pupils and two teachers in a preschool building collapsed and died. More than 10,000 buildings have been destroyed or badly damaged and survivors are sleeping in flimsy tent camps.
Bangkok rescuers are still digging for workers trapped under the debris of a 30-storey construction site which to date has claimed at least 20 lives. Thai authorities search potential safety abuse as wound forms over building’s crusade structure. 
Myanmar’s military junta, simultaneously mired in civil war, now faces logistical snafus entrusted with blocked roads, power blackouts, inadequate rescue gear. International aid has flowed in, though it has been further delayed by U.S. assistance that has come in for criticism.
As the 72-hour rescue window comes to a close, the life raft is all but lost for additional survivors—though the elderly woman’s rescue model shows miracles never fully die.
