Will Bangkok fall out of love with skyscrapers after earthquake rocks city? | Earthquakes News

Bangkok, Thailand – In the teeming metropolis that is the center of Bangkok, Methine Phoovatis has monitored a small computer screen, in the hope of finding signs of survivors.

By surrounding the Methinee, other members of the Department of Disaster Prevention and A attenuation of Disasters (DDPM) coordinated the dozens of rescuers who commissioned on a path which led to a huge mound of debris.

The rescue teams worked in quarters of work, in search of any indication of life under the hill of cement and steel which immense them.

“We just hope for a miracle that some people are still alive,” a DDPM’s plan and politics analyst told Al Jazeera.

It was four days after a magnitude of 7.7 earthquakes shook Bangkok on March 28, and over the hours and days, the chances of methinee and his colleagues finding survivors were increasingly thin.

“We are doing our best for people. I hope they are still alive,” she said, standing next to a whiteboard showing the count of 73 people who still lacked under the rubble of the unfinished building of 30 floors, which was designed to house the national audit office of Thailand.

The earthquake that rocked the Thai capital was particularly shallow, only 10 km (6.2 miles) deep, which intensified shock waves on the surface of the earth.

Although located more than 1,200 km (750 miles) of the Myanmar epicenter where thousands of people died, the earthquake brought Bangkok to stop. The panicked residents of this city of more than 11 million people rushed into the streets in search of security while the buildings were swallowed and shivered.

One month, life in the Thai capital returned to normal.

But the dozens of deaths – most of which were on the site of the collapsed audit office building – and the shock of the events of March 28 aroused concerns for some in Bangkok on the safety of high height life in the 12th largest world city.

‘People shouted’

A sudden sensation of nausea and the swing of the lamps inside his apartment on the ninth floor of a 41 -story building told Harry Yang that he was in danger.

“I ran on my balcony and trembled,” said the 29 -year -old, who called Bangkok his house since birth.

“People were screaming,” he said.

Precipiting himself on the stairs of the firefighters, Yang immediately thought of his aging father who lives on the 32nd floor in another high -rise building in Bangkok and who has mobility problems.

Although his father, who works as an antiquity merchant, left unscathed from the test, the earthquake destroyed many of his antiquities and left him terrified.

“My father is 68, he has leg problems and he needed to go down” stairs to reach the ground floor, “said Yang.

People had good reasons to be afraid. Video clips on social networks have shown that Bangkok trembles, with debris falling to the ground and water punching torrents from the gratge infinite pools.

Lapaphutch Lartsachanant was in his condominium on the 27th floor when the earthquake struck.

“The building was literally moving from side to side. I really felt at the time that the building could be cut in half,” said Lapaphutch.

“I really thought I would not survive,” she added, recalling her desire to speak to her partner one last time by phone. “I thought I could have my last words with him. He would be with me in my last moments alive. ”

Although seismic events in the wider region of Southeast Asia are common, the extent of the earthquake that hit Myanmar – where more than 3,700 people were killed – and shaken Bangkok took a lot.

Wang Yu, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at the National University of Taiwan, said that the Myanmar is directly on a tectonic fault line, the fault of sagain, and the earthquake of March 28 occurred after a lack of slip between India and the Eurasian plates.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a striking shirt refers to a tectonic fault where two plates move horizontally. Since 1900, the USGS reports that six other large earthquakes largely 7.0 or more have occurred less than 250 km (155 miles) of the MYANMAR MYANMAR of the March 28.

Bangkok is built on an unstable ground basin that can increase the effect of these earthquakes, Wang Yu said.

“When a seismic wave transmits from the outside to the basin, the amplitude of the seismic wave will be enlarged,” he said.

But the precise reason why the Bangkok center building collapsed remains under investigation. No other building in Bangkok has undergone such a catastrophic failure, although many are under structural damage. Thailand officials have launched an investigation to assess whether the appropriate construction protocols were followed.

‘Design resistant to earthquakes’

Thailand introduced seismic regulations for the first time on buildings in 1997. In 2007, new legislation specified that buildings greater than 15 meters (49 feet) in high -risk areas like Bangkok must be built to resist earthquakes going as far as magnitude 7.0. Two years later, in 2009, the Thai Department of Public Works and Planning of the City and the Country introduced a “standard for the design of the earthquakes of buildings”.

Given these construction and engineering regulations, questions have been raised about how the building almost built in Bangkok could collapse.

“I think we have to find the deep cause so that at least we can learn certain lessons and improve buildings regulations,” said the governor of Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt, shortly after the earthquake, while local authorities moved through Thailand to test buildings and assess if they were still healthy.

So far, the majority has been deemed to meet security standards.

On April 3, only six days after the earthquake, the Metropolitan Authority of Bangkok declared the end of the “disaster situation” in Bangkok, with the exception of the building collapse site.

Now from the disaster, some residents are still concerned about superficial cracks and other damage to their high -rise residences have contributed to persistent feelings of insecurity.

Despite the engineers declaring that his apartment was sure to live, Varuth Pongsapipatt, 32, found the series of cracks flowing the walls of his slightly disturbing apartment, but he was treated.

“It is quite frightening, but it has no effect on the structure of the building, so it’s okay,” he told Al Jazeera.

With the elevator of her off -ownership out of service after the earthquake, Lapaphutch said that she had been forced to move to her parents for almost three weeks, and that she was not in a hurry to return to her 27th floor.

“I don’t think I’m safe to live in a large building,” she said.

Harry Yang said his father refused to return to his 32 -story house, fearing that aftershocks could happen.

“My parents are really worried. My father has been staying in a hotel since the earthquake has happened,” Yang said in Al Jazeera earlier this month.

Slow response

Research from the National Institute of Thailand of the Development Administration (NIDA) after the earthquake revealed that some 68% of respondents were concerned about the stability and safety of buildings.

For some, the effect on the real estate market was also a concern.

“I am more concerned with real estate prices,” said Yang.

“I think it will have a significant impact on the real estate market and consumer confidence. Many people try to find a way to move,” he said.

After the earthquake, Thai financial analysts predicted that condominium sales could be affected by potential buyers thinking twice before buying a high -rise building in Bangkok, which exerts additional pressure on the country’s real estate sector.

“The earthquake of March 28 should create a windfall for low height houses, which are perceived as less vulnerable to seismic events. This trend will reflect the change observed in 2011 when the floods on a national scale led house buyers to promote condos to small height houses,” reported the newspaper Bangkok post earlier this month.

The earthquake also exposed serious gaps in the emergency alert system of Thailand.

Although a earthquake warning system had to keep the Thai public up to date with information, warning messages could only be sent in prizes of 200,000 both, creating a bottleneck that has slowed communications in a country of almost 72 million.

Harry Yang said that neither he or his parents had received emergency intervention messaging. They were forced to look for information online after the earthquake.

Weeks after the earthquake, Lapaphutch, a bangkok resident, also said that she had never received emergency information.

“We really need this type of system that can alert us,” she said. “Everyone in Thailand should examine this type of notifications to prepare us well.”

The NIDA survey has shown that almost 60% of those questioned were concerned about the effectiveness of early alert systems. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has since called for system improvements in order to increase the dissemination capacity of alert prizes to 1 million at a time, according to local relationships.

Despite the challenges, Thailand has emerged from relatively unscathed tremors.

Just meters from the 30-story collapsed building site, the Bangkok weekend market was already animated by tourists a few days after the earthquake, and events almost resembled a distant memory in a city that never really sleeps.

Harry Yang accepted.

Bangkok residents were first afraid, but it would pass, he said.

“Finally, it will come back to normal.”