Bangkok Declared Disaster Zone Following Powerful Myanmar Earthquake

[webfact]

People who evacuated from buildings following earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chutima Lalit)

 

Bangkok is reeling after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Myanmar shook Thailand's capital. The extreme seismic activity has forced the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to declare a Level 2 disaster zone.

 

This comes as tremors were felt all across North and Central regions, leading to significant damage, especially in Bangkok.

 

Governor Chadchart Sittipunt highlighted the critical situation, urging residents to brace for possible aftershocks. With tremors felt as far as Mae Hong Son province, a rapid response from authorities is underway as they assess damage and prepare to assist citizens.

 

The announcement stressed that public safety is a top priority, in accordance with the 2007 Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act.

 

 

 

As the city grapples with the quake's aftermath, a tragedy unfolded in Chatuchak district. A building under construction collapsed, trapping 43 workers. Reports from the Narenthorn Emergency Medical Services Centre reveal a tense rescue operation is ongoing, though seven workers have managed to escape unscathed.

 

This collapsed structure was part of an “Integrity Pact” project, aimed at ensuring transparency alongside the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand and the State Audit Office of Thailand. While the project had initially been celebrated for its cost savings – approximately 386.15 million baht from the original 2.52 billion baht construction price – it now faces scrutiny amid the disaster.

 

As Bangkok remains on high alert, communities are advised to stay informed on developments and heed official guidance.

 

Based on a report by The Nation

 

-- 2025-03-29

 

 

[MikeandDow]

I think we can guess the cost saving  !!

[PJ71]

Guess this will delay the F1 then?

[Joe32]

I think all that we can learn from this is that Thai people really, really need to practice survival skills. 2 things that stuck with me is that they put all the children in my school under a roof, because the sun was too hot, while they also had to evacuate the kids because of collapse risk. 

 

Second, they really need to focus on subjects like geography. Everyone was in panic because of that 'Aftershooooockkk👹👹👹' that never came, but was talked about in the news. 

 

There was a huge earthquake and a slightly smaller one 12 minutes apart. The first one was felt in Bangkok. Then many 4.~ earthquakes happened. But 3 hours later they were still talking about an aftershock that was coming. Without even doing proper research or having proper knowledge. 

 

I really hope Thai people will update their survival skills because when there's something much bigger than this, they'll be the first one who are gone. 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The announcement stressed that public safety is a top priority,

Is that why  they still construct less than safe infrastructure and buildings?

[animalmagic]

I feel I must defend the Thais in this, as generalisations do not help.  My experience was being buffeted in my 11th floor hotel room before staggering down the corridor and heading down the stairs.  At strategic locations there were members of staff pointing out exit routes and exhorting people to be careful.  The 4th floor swimming pool had deposited many litres of water on the tiled floor so the staff there had put down rubber mats and warned people as they made their way past.  We were ushered into a nearby open parking space and the staff quickly brought out chairs from the ground floor lobby while confirming that the hotel was empty.  The staff liaised quickly to get the single storey restaurant nearby to provide bottles of water and open their doors for the old, young and pregnant to escape from the heat.  Return was delayed until the fear of aftershocks had abated, and the staff continually engaged with all present to reassure us they would let us know as soon as it was considered safe to return.

The Thais were fantastic, and my only issue was the panicking farang who was trying to push me down the stairs and get past; I did consider physical violence but realised I would have to carry his unconscious body out with me.

This was not an international chain hotel but locally owned and run; their staff were impressive.

[Andrew65]

Besides the collapsed building, are there reports of many damaged buildings in Bangkok?

[Snackbar]

Phuket is still sinking

[animalmagic]

8 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Besides the collapsed building, are there reports of many damaged buildings in Bangkok?

From friends and business contacts in the city there appear to be many with damage and restrictions on lift services.  Some news organisations are reporting from desks in a garden.

[JimHuaHin]

35 minutes ago, Joe32 said:

I think all that we can learn from this is that Thai people really, really need to practice survival skills. 2 things that stuck with me is that they put all the children in my school under a roof, because the sun was too hot, while they also had to evacuate the kids because of collapse risk. 

 

Second, they really need to focus on subjects like geography. Everyone was in panic because of that 'Aftershooooockkk👹👹👹' that never came, but was talked about in the news. 

 

There was a huge earthquake and a slightly smaller one 12 minutes apart. The first one was felt in Bangkok. Then many 4.~ earthquakes happened. But 3 hours later they were still talking about an aftershock that was coming. Without even doing proper research or having proper knowledge. 

 

I really hope Thai people will update their survival skills because when there's something much bigger than this, they'll be the first one who are gone. 

Your last paragraph says it all.

 

Seeing the high rise "water falls" was one thing; but seeing many many images on social media of the damage done to many buildings, one has to question not only the quality of the construction, but also the ability of Thai emergency services to cope with a "small" disaster. 

 

Seeing many videos of people running out of buildings and along streets in downtown Bangkok, I thought, what would happen if a few of these tall buildings collapsed, if a building collapsed onto a BTS track?  Yesterday's quakes just needed to be one magnitude stronger or a few hundred kilometres closer to Bangkok, then ...

 

Another report this morning stated that Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt ordered 130 building inspectors to inspect structures - only 130 inspectors for all of Bangkok, how long will it take to just inspect any building which sustained damage yesterday?

[Formaleins]

"With tremors felt as far as Mae Hong Son province" - You just note the level of reporting here - These idiots cannot understand that Mae Hong Son is about 800 KM closer to the centre than Bangkok, what hope is there for a country infested and paralysed by the stupid dimwits that are sadly allowed to run this place.

[ujayujay]

51 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Is that why  they still construct less than safe infrastructure and buildings?

Another self-proclaimed construction expert who thinks a magnitude 7.6 earthquake is a joke. In most Western countries, such an earthquake would result in 80% structural damage. I've built two houses in Thailand and I'm familiar with the earthquake safety requirements here! Where is your authority on this utter nonsense you're spouting?

[Andrew65]

2 minutes ago, ujayujay said:

Another self-proclaimed construction expert who thinks a magnitude 7.6 earthquake is a joke. In most Western countries, such an earthquake would result in 80% structural damage. I've built two houses in Thailand and I'm familiar with the earthquake safety requirements here! Where is your authority on this utter nonsense you're spouting?

Bangkok isn't deemed to be in an earthquake zone though?

[KannikaP]

5 minutes ago, ujayujay said:

I've built two houses in Thailand

A bit different than 50+ story towers.

[KhunLA]

Talking to my daughter, works in skyscraper @ Sathorn,  near Lumphini Park, and contrary to my initial though (no big deal), it was pretty F'g scary.   She shored some photos & vids with me, and agree, damn scary indeed.

 

Works in 12th floor, or 32 story building, and all under the desks,during initial 'sway', and then evacuated, the latter being the scary part.   As building material falling of the side of building, glass, concrete, cement, roofing, signage .... you name it, and it was falling onto the sidewalks & streets.   

 

Along with the mass panic and people running about.  What a mess.

[Ralf001]

4 hours ago, PJ71 said:

Guess this will delay the F1 then?

 

a large patch of ground just opened up !

[Joe32]

20 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

"With tremors felt as far as Mae Hong Son province" - You just note the level of reporting here - These idiots cannot understand that Mae Hong Son is about 800 KM closer to the centre than Bangkok, what hope is there for a country infested and paralysed by the stupid dimwits that are sadly allowed to run this place.

And everyone believes it. In my earlier posts I mentioned the problems with the news of an aftershock coming.... When I mentioned that was just not possible given the circumstances, they all looked at me like wtf are you? The news is the truth, we follow the news

[Ralf001]

12 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Bangkok isn't deemed to be in an earthquake zone though?

 

No, but as it is built on soft ground (clay/sand/sanitary napkins/used condoms) it is highly susceptible to any seismic activity in the region.

[KhunLA]

4 minutes ago, Joe32 said:

And everyone believes it. In my earlier posts I mentioned the problems with the news of an aftershock coming.... When I mentioned that was just not possible given the circumstances, they all looked at me like wtf are you? The news is the truth, we follow the news

this is the past 24 hrs, and yea, Myanmar has be trembling a bit ... 

 

 

source: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/today.html

[ujayujay]

23 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Bangkok isn't deemed to be in an earthquake zone though?

Of course, Bangkok has always been in the earthquake zone, and in 1964, the alert level was adjusted to reflect reality. Danger Level 2!

[Joe32]

5 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

this is the past 24 hrs, and yea, Myanmar has be trembling a bit ... 

 

 

source: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/today.html

There were 2 big ones. If correct a 7.7 and a 6.4 one. Within something like 15 minutes of each other. What's the logic that if 1 of them was felt, the other one not, that a 4.something can be felt over here? 

[ChipButty]

1 hour ago, Andrew65 said:

Besides the collapsed building, are there reports of many damaged buildings in Bangkok?

I know of a few, and my wife owns a condo, she had booked a flight to go on the 3rd, not a lot she can do by going now, from what she knows only slight damage on the lower floors, her neigbour has <deleted> ed off with the spare keys my wifes brother was going to take a look, The juristic office have a Line chat group this is a new building less than one year old, 

[richard_smith237]

26 minutes ago, Joe32 said:

There were 2 big ones. If correct a 7.7 and a 6.4 one. Within something like 15 minutes of each other. What's the logic that if 1 of them was felt, the other one not, that a 4.something can be felt over here? 

 

It depends how the waves travel, the type of wave, and intensity each individual type, and direction of the movement. 

 

Body Waves (move through the inside of the Earth)

P-Waves (Primary Waves), these are fastest type of seismic wave and move in a push-pull (compressional) motion, like a slinky. These are the first to be detected by seismographs.

 

S-Waves (Secondary Waves), slower than P-waves, move in a side-to-side (shear) motion, perpendicular to the direction of wave travel. These cause more damage than P-waves because of their stronger movement.

 

Surface Waves (move along the surface of the Earth)

Love Waves, which move the ground side-to-side, like a snake, only travel along the surface. Usually cause a lot of damage to buildings.

 

Rayleigh Waves, which move the ground in a rolling, elliptical motion (like ocean waves). Slowest of all seismic waves, and cause both up-and-down and side-to-side shaking.

 

 

Depending upon how the quake occurred impacts the type of wave and even the direction of dissipation of energy.  

 

Thus: its possible the initial 7.7 Mw quake released a greater intensity of shear waves than the secondary 6.4 Mw aftershock. 

 

 

The magnitude of the 7.7Mw quake was estimated to be between 4-5 Mw in Bangkok (I've not seen any official figures) due to the dissipating of energy through the bed rock, which was then amplified by the 'basin effect' of Bangkoks 'bowl' lakebed setting....  effectively like shaking a bowl of jelly.

 

Thus in layman's terms the quake in Bangkok was a 4-5 Mw Magnitude wobble, where as in area's such as Pattaya and throughout the Korat Plateau the energy of the all waves would have dissipated with no soft formations to amplify the energy.

 

 

 

 

[Burma Bill]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

While the project had initially been celebrated for its cost savings .................. it now faces scrutiny amid the disaster.

 

For reference:- (Google)

 

According to the SAO, construction of the 30-storey building being built at a cost of 2.13 billion baht began in 2020. The construction was carried out by the ITD-CREC joint venture and supervised by the PKW joint venture. ITD-CREC consists of Italian-Thai Development Plc and China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Ltd.5 hours ago

 

Please note ITD (Italian Thai Development) is the main contractor for the new elevated express highway, part of which recently collapsed onto Rama 2 Road in Bangkok, also killing people.

 

[songhklasid]

Is the BTS still running? Any damage in the sukumvit area ? 
cheers SS . 

[Celsius]

2 hours ago, ujayujay said:

Another self-proclaimed construction expert who thinks a magnitude 7.6 earthquake is a joke. In most Western countries, such an earthquake would result in 80% structural damage. I've built two houses in Thailand and I'm familiar with the earthquake safety requirements here! Where is your authority on this utter nonsense you're spouting?

 

Bangkok was not hit with 7.6

 

Back to elementary school.

[ujayujay]

Just now, Celsius said:

 

Bangkok was not hit with 7.6

 

Back to elementary school.

Do you talk to yourself

[Celsius]

37 minutes ago, ujayujay said:

Do you talk to yourself

 

Bangkok experienced a tremor and nothing even close to 7.7 earthquake.

 

wow you're dumb 

[Andrew65]

5 minutes ago, Celsius said:

 

Bangkok experienced a tremor and nothing even close to 7.7 earthquake.

 

wow you're dumb 

I experienced a tremour in Papua New Guinea when I worked there. My job was to run a seismograph, some days I saw natural seismic activity several times. I also recorded a quake in Iran, whilst working in Saudi. The Tsunami earthquake came through loud & proud on our instrument, 4500 miles away.

[PETERTHEEATER]

5 hours ago, JimHuaHin said:

Your last paragraph says it all.

 

Seeing the high rise "water falls" was one thing; but seeing many many images on social media of the damage done to many buildings, one has to question not only the quality of the construction, but also the ability of Thai emergency services to cope with a "small" disaster. 

 

Seeing many videos of people running out of buildings and along streets in downtown Bangkok, I thought, what would happen if a few of these tall buildings collapsed, if a building collapsed onto a BTS track?  Yesterday's quakes just needed to be one magnitude stronger or a few hundred kilometres closer to Bangkok, then ...

 

Another report this morning stated that Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt ordered 130 building inspectors to inspect structures - only 130 inspectors for all of Bangkok, how long will it take to just inspect any building which sustained damage yesterday?

They will find Bangkok is not all it's cracked up to be.😋