Singaporeans in Chengdu say they are safe and well after quake
By Dominique Loh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 13 May 2008 1947 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Several Singapore companies with offices in Sichuan province on Tuesday said their staff are safe and doing well.

One CEO described the earthquake in Chengdu as "dramatic", and said his 15 employees are holding up well after the initial shock.

The tremors came without warning, and travellers at Chengdu's airport were caught in the middle of the chaos. Among them was Singaporean businessman Tan Thai Hong, who told Channel NewsAsia he was supposed to fly out of Chengdu when the earthquake struck.

"It was a sea of people, all rushing out... When we ran out of the terminal building onto the road... we really felt the earth was moving and everything was shaking," Mr Tan, CEO of Surbana Corporation, said.

"The first thing that occurred to us was getting away from the glass panels, away from overhanging objects on the roof, so should things fall down, there would be no injury. Luckily, when we looked back at the terminal building, we did not see any damage," he added.

Immediately after the quake, communication was difficult, but Mr Tan said they were able to make calls back home after many tries.

A day later, the situation has stabilised and communication lines have improved. However, flying in and out of the airport is still tricky.

Mr Tan said: "The airport is quite chaotic now. Many flights were cancelled yesterday so we're all loaded (on) the flights today... Information is very hard to get. I'm now in the city centre, it's very hard to find out if the airport is open or closed. It's chaotic, but we will manage."

Some travellers also found it hard to fly out of the quake-stricken area as the airport struggled to cope with the sudden influx of people trying to get away from the devastation.

But a group of Singaporeans managed to secure seats out of Chengdu, and arrived at Changi Airport on Tuesday evening.

One of them, David King, said: "I can't say it's chaotic, but you can see that people are desperate to leave Chengdu... We actually paid more, we paid 3,000-plus RMB, almost 4,000, to fly to Hong Kong, and in Hong Kong we paid another sum of money (to fly) back to Singapore."

While still in Chengdu, Mr Tan managed to check on the company's Botanica Township project. He said engineers inspected the site and found no structural damage to the 1,500 or so apartments.

"At the most, what we saw (were) some cracks on the plaster of the wall and these are confined to the internals of the buildings," Mr Tan said. He added that they will continue with further inspections to ensure the buildings are structurally sound.

Channel NewsAsia also contacted several other Singapore companies with offices in the Sichuan area. Most said their staff are safe, and their businesses are not impacted in a major way. - CNA/ac