Laois teacher's frightening Myanmar earthquake experience

A Laois man has described the terrifying moments after the Myanmar earthquake of March 28, that reached his home in Bangkok, Thailand.

James Conroy grew up in the countryside near Mountrath, going on to study in LSAD art college and then live in Limerick for close to ten years before deciding to move out to Bangkok for 9 months.

"I had a friend out here in Bangkok so I thought it would be a good experience to try out something new. I have been living here now for almost 10 years. I am an art teacher at a British international school in Bangkok - working at my current school for the past 8.5 years," he said.

He spoke to the Leinster Express / Laois Live about his frightening experience on Friday, March 28 when the huge 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar, killing over 3,000 people.

Although Bangkok is 1,000km away, the quake ran along a faultline and reached the high rise city, causing the collapse of an unfinished skyscraper and deaths of construction workers.

James was teaching his young students when it struck.

"I was in work on Friday March 28 when the earthquake hit Bangkok. It was 1:30 pm and I was down the stairs in the school courtyard waiting to collect my year 7 class, similar to 1st years in Ireland, and bring them to the Friday end of week assembly.

"As I was standing at the base of the steps I suddenly felt unsteady, unbalanced and light headed. I thought I was unwell, possible low blood sugar or something like that, then I realised that the staff and students around me were also experiencing the same so it struck me that the ground was moving, it wasn’t just in my mind.

"The school alarms went off and we completed the emergency procedures with the students. The shaking lasted for about 2 minutes or so but felt longer.

"Some students brought my attention to the swimming pool off to our left which was spilling water out and down on to the basketball court," he said.

Once the students had been collected James was allowed to leave at 3pm.

"I live 18km from work. The journey took me 4.5hrs to complete as the traffic was gridlocked due to the high rise collapse in Chatuchak and the temporary closure of the public trains as they needed to be inspected after the quake.

"When I arrived home late that evening many people were in the condo (apartment) lobby, they were nervous to go up to the rooms.

"My apartment building is 34 floors with a pool and gym on the rooftop. My apartment is located on level 28. When myself and my partner who is Thai went to check on our room, we noticed after leaving the lift that there was some cracks in the hallway we looked inside our room and noticed cracks on the walls.

"This of course made us nervous and we decided to leave and walk to a local hotel where we spent the weekend until our apartment was inspected by engineers.

"My partner was shaken up too as he had to evacuated from level 25 of his office building during the quake. Once the engineers gave it the all clear we moved back in on the Monday and have been here ever since, the damage is superficial thankfully and we are on a list to get it repaired.

"The first few nights back were a little scary for us. I was contacted by family and friends from home and they were glad to hear that things were ok.

"At work we have been organising donation events to help with the relief effort in Myanmar which is where the epicenter was located, 800km from Bangkok.

"I hope more people are found alive and that aid is given as soon  as possible to all the people effected by this event.

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"Now I am trying to get on with things, back to work and we are trying to get back to some kind of normalcy here. Future plans on returning to Ireland, I am not sure yet, this event thought me that planning too far ahead isn’t always the best strategy as things can happen and change unexpectedly. 

"I love it in Bangkok it feels like home but I also like to get back home to Ireland at Christmas time too to see my family and spend some time in Ireland. The home base is now in Sligo but I still have some family scattered around Laois and beyond," James Conroy said.

UNICEF Ireland is holding a collection to help children affected by the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand. To find out how to donate click here.