A three-person team from the U.S. Agency for International Development arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited U.S. resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation. Washington has said it would provide $2 million in emergency assistance.
Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) north of Mandalay.
Many areas are without power, telephone or cellphone connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.
In Singu township, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed in a cave-in, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.