People stand on a street after a strong earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand on March 28, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Survivors of the massive earthquake that shattered Myanmar and Thailand on Friday recounted the horrors they faced and the adversities they endured to tell the tale.
S.K. Jain, 55, an accounts and tax consultant based in Bangkok, was at the Jewellery Trade Centre (JTC) in the Thai capital’s Silom area for a meeting on Friday. Soon after he reached the 40th floor of the 59-floor building at 1.16 p.m., he messaged a colleague to say he would be back later. Within two minutes, the entire building started shaking, Mr. Jain recalled, he was trapped in a high-rise building during an earthquake.
Myanmar earthquake LIVE updates – March 29, 2025
“It was a nightmare. It was the worst time of my life. I was petrified. The first shock started at around 1.18 p.m. The blinds of the office where I was waiting started swinging by over a foot. It was scary to see that. We all rushed to the staircase to come down. Some said they had left their eight- and 10-carat diamonds on a table as they rushed out. The second tremor started as we reached the 21st floor. We were somewhere between the 18th floor and 21st floor at that time. The entire staircase started shaking vigorously. I remembered all the Gods I had ever thought of! I thought I wouldn’t be able to make it. I came down 40 floors in 7.5 minutes flat. Over 1,500 people came down with me. Many had left their phones in their offices in that hurry. Some were without shoes. We were all on the streets in no time. The traffic jam we witnessed was unprecedented,” Mr. Jain said, narrating his ordeal to The Hindu.
The JTC is a famous hub in Bangkok. There are two wings with 59 floors each. Each floor has 14 offices.
Mr. Jain said Bangkok witnessed 34 aftershocks afterward. People living in high-rise buildings could not return home, and spent the night in tents or small hotels.
“We were all in tents from yesterday till today afternoon around 1 p.m. My house is on the 19th floor. We were specifically instructed by the government to not go back home till it was safe. Structural engineers conducted an audit and gave a report. We were allowed to go back only once this report was given. We stayed in camps,” he said. Water and electricity supply is still widely disrupted.
His legs were still sore, he said. Nevertheless, he cycled over two kilometres on Saturday to reach home. “The traffic snarls in the city were so massive that people got stuck in their cars for hours at end,” Mr. Jain said.
Shikha Rastogi, 56, had a similar experience. The head of examinations at the Global Indian International School in Bangkok was having lunch with her colleagues at The Big Tree restaurant in Bangkok when the earthquake occurred. The chandeliers began shaking violently while she was speaking on phone with her husband, who was ill, she said. All the diners rushed out of the restaurant. The shocks were so severe that many could not stand on their own feet without support.
Their van left the hotel after 1.30 p.m., but the traffic was so bad that her colleagues reached home only at 9.30 p.m., while she was fortunate to return home in three hours.
“My high-rise building had shut down by the time I returned. The police would not allow me to enter the lane of my housing complex, which is over a kilometre away from the main road. I had to convince them that I lived there and that I needed to go back to my ill husband. When I entered the lane, I tried to search for my husband. I asked around. All the shops were shut. I was worried. Then I saw my husband sitting with the support of a pillar,” Ms. Rastogi told The Hindu.
She lives in Tower 3 of SV Towers, a plush township of eight buildings with 37 floors each.
Ms. Rastogi said her husband suffers from multiple myeloma. “It is bone marrow cancer. He has recently undergone a transplant. When the earthquake started, he lay down on bed thinking he was feeling giddy. Our house help brought him down eight floors to safety,” Ms. Rastogi said.
She was heartbroken when she returned home on Saturday to pick up essential items, including medicines. Ms. Rastogi missed her flight to India on Saturday, but felt grateful that she was alive. Her 26-year-old son in Hong Kong wants his parents to sell their house and move in with him as he feels sleepless with anxiety over their safety.
Published – March 29, 2025 10:28 pm IST