Chicago native living in Thailand describes experience with devastating earthquake (2025)

The death toll from the powerful earthquake in Southeast Asia last week has now topped more than 2,000 — but remarkably, signs of life are still being detected in Myanmar and Thailand.

Myanmar was hit hardest. The country's key infrastructure was badly damaged, and acivil warhad already been raging there before the 7.7 magnitude quake struck on Friday. There have been significant aftershocks in its wake.

In neighboring Thailand, the quake was felt strongly in capital Bangkok, but only one large building completely collapsed. Thai authorities haveordered an investigationinto that isolated collapse to determine whether it could have been due to inadequate building materials, design flaws or a failure in the inspections process.

Jahari Jones, who is from Chicago's South Side, moved to Bangkok on Dec. 1 of last year.

"A lot of people were shocked. They didn't know what to do. So my experience was — I do YouTube, I edit videos. I was in a cafe editing, and when I was editing, I felt like everything around me like the matrix just moving," Jones said, "and I thought something was wrong with me. I thought maybe I was having a panic attack. Maybe I was."

But Jones soon realized he was not the only one experiencing an uncomfortable feeling.

"I saw like the table shaking, and then a lot of people start running to the front about like eight ladies ran to the front and was asking, 'What's going on?' So I had my headphones on when I was editing, and I was like, wow, this is crazy — like what's going on?" Jones said. "And then about 15 minutes later, they said, breaking news, 7.7 earthquake in Thailand. And I was like, wow!"

Jones was in a single-story building at the time of the earthquake, and said he likely had it easier than people in high-rises.

"But it still was bad," he said. "I thought I really was about to pass out."

He said during what he later found out was the earthquake, "It felt like the building was on top of the ocean and waves just coming towards us, so the building was moving back and forth like that."

Jones said he was not able to contact his family back in the United States right away due to a 12-hour time difference.

In the days since the earthquake, Jones said life in Thailand has been hectic — and many other expats are fleeing and going home.

"It's a lot of YouTube videos where people they're like booking their flights back to the U.S.A., because they're scared that another one might come — a potential tsunami," said Jones. "Like a lot of people are just scared, you know, so I don't blame some of them, but I believe I got faith. I don't think a natural disaster will happen anytime soon after that one. So I'm going to just stay here."

In:
• Thailand
• Bangkok
• Earthquake