"At first it was an imperceptible vibration. I thought it was the subway passing under my house. But in a short time everything turned into a disturbing sensation and the nightmare began." Fear and adrenaline pepper the story of Francesco Lenza, a forty-six-year-old from Pirri who has lived in Bangkok for a long time. Lenza, who after traveling the world with various jobs now lives with his Thai partner in the capital, experienced first-hand the dramatic moments of the violent earthquake that devastated the city. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Burma, but the tremor also spread to Thailand, where it caused the collapse of a skyscraper under construction.
At the moment of the tremor, "I was in the bathroom," the Sardinian said. Outside the door, all you could hear was the noise of the paintings falling to the floor and the walls creaking. "I started to sway along with the house," he admitted, still shaken by what had happened. Despite the moment of great criticality, there was no time to organize an escape, so instinct prevailed. "My girlfriend and I ran away, we rushed down the stairs and we realized it was an earthquake." Outside the building, the "spectacle" was surreal: "On the street there were only lots of people who had fled their homes. For me, who am Sardinian, it was a new situation, I had never experienced anything like it."
After the shock, the reassurances: "The authorities told us to be careful. Now everything seems calm, but it was a situation of pure panic, for which you are never prepared." "I know there are victims, we are fine. It is an experience I do not want to relive," concludes Lenza.
(Unioneonline/E.Fr)
