Slept right through it

[reader]

….and I was in high-rise building (and so did my friend).

From Thai PBS World

People flee high-rise buildings in Bangkok as Myanmar quake tremors felt

Many office workers in high-rise buildings in Bangkok and Nonthaburi province rushed into the streets after they felt their buildings shake this morningi (Monday).

One netizen tweeted that he was on the 13th floor of a building in the Lat Phrao area when he saw ceiling lamps swaying and felt dizzy.

Another said that she dared not re-enter their building, after she and her colleagues ran out.

The Meteorological Department said in a statement this morning that a 6 magnitude earthquake was recorded at 8.40am, with its epicentre located about 10km under the sea near the southern coast of Myanmar, at latitude 15.266 degrees north and longitude 96.488 degrees east and about 289km southwest of Phob Phra district of Tak province.

The effects of the quake were felt in Bangkok and Nonthaburi province, said the department, adding that the event was on the Sagaing fault, which stretches from 1,000km offshore in the Andaman Sea and passes through central Myanmar.

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Bangkok hotels want BMA to postpone plan to charge for waste water treatment

Hotels in Bangkok want the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to postpone its plan to charge hotels for waste water treatment, claiming that most of them are not financially ready after having just recovered from three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association.

The BMA plans to charge 8 baht per cubic metre of waste water discharged into the drainage system from commercial buildings, including hotels, which use more than 2,000 cubic metres of water per month. The BMA estimates that 80% of the tap water consumed by commercial buildings are discharged as waste into the drainage system.

Marisa said that hotels are now shouldering increasing operational costs, such as for electricity, cooking gas, wages, bank interest rates and land taxes.

Since many large and medium-sized hotels have their own water treatment plants, she said that they should be exempt from treatment charges, adding that she doubts the BMA’s eight treatment facilities are capable of treating all the waste water released into the drainage system from commercial buildings and households in the capital.

Whether the water treatment fees are 4 baht or 8 baht, depending on the category of the commercial building, Marisa said they will not be ready to pay the fees from the end of this year, as planned by the BMA.

 

[PeterRS]

This reminds me of the disastrous earthquake of between 9.1 and 9.3 on the Richter scale off Bandar Aceh in Indonesia and the consequent equally disastrous tsunami in December 2004 . Although the epicentre of that quake was 1,100 kms away, so great was its magnitude it was felt in Bangkok. Guests in the high rise Banyan Tree Hotel (then named the Westin I think) had to evacuate the hotel and residents in other buildings on Sathorn somewhat less tall also felt quite violent shock waves.