Flood Situation Gets Worse In Thailand's Mid-South

[khunsiam]

The rocks between Chaweng and Lamai near the Cliff restaurant and the others in Maenam.

Be careful while driving the ringroad, rocks slide from the mountain, never seen before.

..Holy Moly....

Where did you take the first 3 photos with the rocks ? and the last 4 ? Seems more devastating than I could possibly imagin.

LaoPo

[animatic]

This will test the infrastructure in Samui or lack of.

With landslides pending ,poor drainage , inevitable pollution ........this will set Samui back a decade if its all as bad as they report the situation to be..

Unfortunately his was always something that had to happen , I feel sorry for those that bought big houses in those precarious hill top positions.

Developers offering 4WD,s to those people that bought houses on 45 degree radiants

Possibly the only well drained realestate developments would be the golf courses ,built by European professionals.

Back to the drawing board !

Thanks for your concern. Undoubtedly Samui like many other places is not without infrastructure problems. However you need to do a little more research before you post such dramatic statements. November 2005 saw floods of even worse proportions and within a week of the floods subsiding, Samui was up and running again. The same thing happened in Oct/Nov last year and within a week it was up and running again. Therefore I suggest the 10 year recovery you suggest will be required may be laughable. But we all enjoy a good laugh!

Are you sure you feel sorry for those with big houses?

Get back to your own drawing board and do a bit more research!

By the way you don't have to have poor infrastructure to suffer from floods. Check out Queensland.

I concur with nod.

I was here in 2005, and 2007 and last Nov. of course this was bad but we have seen worse on 2005. I will note that the big rocks had not come down in past floods, but I think last November did a lot to set the stage for this to happen this time. Signifi9cantly weakening the under structure. We did have some periods of serious continuous rains last fall.

In all these floods my truck never died and did this time, but not in a raging torrent. Battery went low, probably from wet alternator. I had to go out to save 2 ladies at 7 pm monday and we ended up in a resort for the night.

The bridge at Samui Laguna in Lamai was destroyed in 2007 and rebuilt, and though the river was worse this time around the new bridge stood up well. One of the bungalows of Laguna did end up in the raging river...they tried to get me to take a 'river side bungalow for the night'... not hardly girl... ain't close to that stupid. Moved up the street.

And the river did come up farther than ever seen before, entering but not significantly damaging buildings on the large river side. The smaller river, did take out a restaurant kitchen 100 m up stream from the bridge that had survived last Nov. without a problem. The problem typically has been water on the street coming into buildinghs, but this time it was from both sides at once.

I think the main difference is increased building and more blockage of natural drainage ways. Couple to more people being better at sandbagging their properties in the way of natural drainage and this cause greater amounts of reflowed water through smaller estuaries of last resort.

I have heard of between 1-3 electrocution deaths, but nothing specific.

Got electric back on about 6:45 and it blipped off several times, but has been steady for a while now.

Will Samui bounce back quickly. yes it will it always has in the past, usually much faster than the perception that it can. Certainly some roads will show the effects and building industry weil get a boost in business for 2 months doing repairs. but in general business as usual and hide the problems and sell sell sell.

Edited March 30, 2011 by animatic

[animatic]

Since I last posted around 24hrs ago, I have not being able to contact my wife it is as though her phone is switched off.

Normally we talk 3 or 4 times a day when I am away from home.

The last time I talked to her she was helping some friends save their restaurant situated on the beach behind Lamai Pearl resort Koh Samui. She said there were two metre waves pounding the beach which is only a few yards from the restaurant.

If anyone has any information at all on that area it would be gratefully received.

Cyb, cell serves has been very bad in Lamai, and no electricity to charge phones except in some resorts with generators. But I have seen nothing ravaged specifically on the water front in Lamai. I was down at the beach behind McDonalds and nothing damaged but beach marques and deck chairs.

Edited March 30, 2011 by animatic

[brahmburgers]

I'm about as far from Samui as a person can be, and still be in Thailand. However, I've been to Samui several times over a 27 year period, and have always had good times there. I particularly like the stretch of secluded rocky shore several miles north of the touristy beaches on the east coast. I hope they keep it natural.

a few things are happening here in Chiang Rai which may or may not be a reflection of they types of things happening at Sumui

A large tract of communally owned rice paddies has been bought by speculators. Hundreds of truckloads of clay have been brought in from nearby to fill in the paddies - to make them ready for houses. Here are a few things that come to mind:

>>>> Less land for rice growing.

>>>> Some fringe parcels have not been filled in, so they're already becoming swamp-like, with no drainage. Great for mosquitoes though.

>>>> What plans are being made for septic, as there's no city sewer here in this outlying area, and the whole complex sits on 1 meter of fill

>>>> work has already begun on foundations, though the fill has only been there for weeks, and hasn't gone through a rainy season.

[george]

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At least 4 dead, 100 missing in Krabi mudslide; Floods across Thailand kill at least 15

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