‘We just do what we can’: Singaporeans in Myanmar stoic after massive quake

SINGAPORE – When the floor of her second-storey office in Myanmar began to shake on March 28, Juni thought she was just light-headed from staring at her laptop screen for too long.

Then came the loud boom when a wooden beam crashed to the floor. The Singaporean, who declined to give her full name, was seized momentarily by fear, and her mind raced. She wondered if they were under attack or if it was a bomb.

Juni, who is in her 30s and works in research in the oil and gas sector in Mandalay, realised what was happening when someone shouted that an earthquake had struck.

She immediately fled from the three-storey building with her colleagues.

Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, was among the areas rocked by a

7.7-magnitude quake

on March 28, followed by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock minutes later.

Some people like Juni who live in Myanmar managed to emerge unharmed. Others were not so lucky.

In Myanmar alone, the death toll from the quake reached about 1,700, the military government said.

The powerful tremors also struck Thailand and Vietnam, leaving widespread destruction.

A man in his 20s who is volunteering in Myanmar told The Straits Times that he was helping someone troubleshoot a laptop issue via the phone when the caller suddenly panicked.

“I realised there were tremors only after the caller said something was wrong with the ground,” said the Singaporean, who wants to be known only as Alvin.

When he stepped outside his fourth-floor apartment in Mandalay, he could hear items falling and breaking in his neighbours’ homes. He quickly ran down the stairs of the five-storey building with his neighbours.

“We stood some distance away for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes,” he said.

Mr Jeshua Soh, a Singaporean business owner in Myanmar’s human resources industry, said he felt the quake just as he landed in Yangon.

Although some parts of Yangon were facing power outages, his company’s office had backup generators. Despite the risk of aftershocks, he was not worried about being back in the city.

“We just do what we can and minimise risk,” he said stoically.

Sanda J, a Singaporean-Burmese student visiting her extended family in Mandalay, first noticed something was off when her glass of water tipped over during a meal with her mother and grandmother.

“I was about to move it to the centre of the table when it fell. My grandmother scolded me, saying it was bad luck for the glass to break. I kept saying I didn’t push it, but she didn’t believe me,” she recalled.

The argument was cut short when her mother pointed out that everything in their fourth-level condominium unit was shaking.

“Pots and pans began sliding off the countertop,” said Sanda. “Someone was screaming for everyone to leave the building because there was an earthquake.”

They hurried down the stairs.

“My grandmother is old, so we had to go more slowly. I started feeling really light-headed, like I was going to vomit,” she added.

When they finally reached the ground level, the dizziness overwhelmed her, and she threw up. They returned to their apartment after about an hour.

The experience left Sanda shaken but counting her blessings.

“I learnt that several buildings nearby had come undone due to the earthquake,” she said. “In a way, we were lucky that our building was safe to go back to and nothing severe happened to it during the quake.”