Bangkok residents rethink high-rise living after Myanmar quake: ‘I feel scared’
One property manager said the quake prompted a flurry of inquiries from residents looking to relocate, due to ‘fear and anxiety’ of living far above ground
Shaken hours earlier by a massive earthquake, Phatsakon Kaewkla’s terror was magnified when he came home to find gaping cracks in the walls of his 22nd-floor Bangkok flat.
Feeling unsafe in the building damaged by the biggest tremors to hit the capital in generations, the 23-year-old Thai decided to stay away for two days until experts gave the high-rise the all-clear.
The sales coordinator is now one of many Bangkok residents wondering if they should seek safer housing in a city where hundreds of residential buildings were damaged by the 7.7-magnitude quake that struck neighbouring Myanmar on March 28.
The owners of Phatsakon’s condominium assured him that engineers had checked every part of the building and concluded it was habitable.
I feel a little bit scared. And also my mum told me to move out from here
But he is still spooked about the cracks.