‘I had to sprint’—Trinidadian Keron Rose survives deadly 7.7 magnitude quake in Thailand

Trinidad and Tobago: Trinidad-born digital specialist Keron Rose shared on social media that he is safe after experiencing the violent 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia. The violent earthquake rocked Myanmar on Friday, killing over 1000 people and injuring more than 2700 individuals.  

Rose, who is best known for the Digipreneur segment on CNC3’s The Morning Brew, a columnist in TT Newsday and Jamaica Observer migrated to Thailand in 2024 and has been consistently sharing his experiences as a digital nomad. 

While sharing his recent experience of facing this natural disaster, Rose said, “I had to sprint for my life during the deadly 7.7 earthquake.” 

In a video on Facebook, he said, “I did a hundred-meter dash from the 12th floor. I was sleeping and the whole building started to rock and as I came outside, I open my door, I saw everybody on my floor jumping out as if everyone realise that this is real.” 

He further added that everybody was in a nightgown because a lot of people are working on Western time which is why a lot of them were sleeping at the time of the earthquake.” 

“Man, we just start to see the ceiling start to crack and start to cave. And I just grabbed my bag, threw on some shoes and cut. And I'm so bumpy because right in that moment I'm like, oh shoot my passport. And I went to open back the door and couldn't open back the door because I left my room key inside of the place,” he further added.  

According to Rose, “So, like all the foreigners that are here, like, we're all, well, everybody's outside, but all the foreigner's kind of checked in. And I was like, yo, who managed to grab their passport? And everybody was like, man, we didn't even think about that.” 

He further expressed his concerns saying that Thailand does not have natural disasters and last time the country has one was in 60s, and this clearly shows that it is a sign of climate change.  

March 28 Quake described strongest since 1930

Phichit Sombatmak, director-general of the Mineral Resources Department while talking about the quake said that it measured at between 7.4 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, was the strongest tremor felt in Thailand since 1930 when about 500 people were killed.  

He said that the tremor was initially measured at 7.7 magnitude at 1:20 pm at a depth of around 10 km and it was caused by the movement of the Sagaing fault in Mandalay, around 16 km from Sangiang town and around 1,100 km from Bangkok. 

The earthquake was followed 12 minutes later by a 6.4 magnitude aftershock. The strong vibrations were felt across the northern, north-eastern, eastern and central regions of Thailand, including Bangkok, he said.