Tropical storms ravage Bangkok and several provinces



BANGKOK: -- Tropical torrential rainstorms and hail storms ravaged several northern, northeast and central provinces yesterday and today destroying hundreds of homes, and bringing down power poles, trees and billboards.

The tropical storms were expected to happen until April 9 with a new round of storms predicted during the Songkran festival when another high pressure spell from China is moving in to cover the Southern China, Vietnam and to Thailand’s north, northeast, east and central regions.

In Ang Thong province, torrential rainstorm knocked down several power poles, trees and bill boards along a 20-kilometre stretch of the Asian highway at Kilometre markers 53-63 Wednesday morning.

The fallen trees, branches, power poles and bill boards obstructed traffic on both inbound and outbound lanes, leaving only one lane on the inbound traffic remaining passable.

Highway and provincial authorities with heavy machinery were working hastily this morning to clear the debris to open the section to traffic.

Some petrol stations on the highway have their roofs blown away and ceiling collapsed, forcing some of them to suspend services.

Falling trees and power poles also resulted in one accident when the driver swerved to hit fallen debris but rammed at another vehicle.

In Bangkok, tropical rainstorm hit most part of the capital during the morning rush hours, causing floodings and paralysing traffic on many roads.

Floods was reported on Rajapruek road at the foot of the Rama IV bridge causing traffic jams for several kilometres on the inbound lane.

By 10 am traffic on all inbound roads remained very congested such as Phayothin, Ladprao, Chaengwattana, Bang Na Trat, Ratchadapisek, Ramkhamhaeng, Vibhavadi, Sukhumvit and New Phetburi.

Tropical rainstorms also ravaged hundreds of homes in Khon Kaen and Nakhon Phanom yesterday.

A roof of a sports stadium in Iranian district of Khon Kaen collapsed after it was ravaged by the storm. But there was no injury. However some cars parked nearby were damaged.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/tropical-storms-ravage-bangkok-and-several-provinces


-- Thai PBS 2015-04-08

Ravaged? It rained. Not as hard as it has in the past. But it rained. No wind.

why is this news?

thailand is a tropical country, tropical rain storms like this happen with great regularity. in fact there was a bigger storm only last week...

nice to feel human for a few hours until the heat and humidity build up again.

Yay........

Wondering also, If it rains during songkran, do they move the festivities indoors?

Ravaged? It rained. Not as hard as it has in the past. But it rained. No wind.

We are relatively close.. (20 km from you) but here it rained quite hard and strong winds too. Must have been real local.

It cooled down quite nicely.

Please please move a little further south!!

We really need it.............

Rain in the tropics? unbelievable! What a headline. Perhaps the governor of Bangkok can use some of the sewer cleaning equipment sitting idle to clean out the sewer drains. He has been surprised at least twice before in the past couple of weeks and has done absolutely nothing, relying on luck as usual to get by.

Loved the rain from my home. Nice and cool here now.

Note to self - don't swerve to hit debris, you might ram another vehicle.

Note to self - don't swerve to hit debris, you might ram another vehicle.

You would swerve to hit debris.. ? Most people swerve not to hit debris

It's a bit cloudy in Pattaya but I think the storm is not heading inthis direction , unfortunately....

Note to self - don't swerve to hit debris, you might ram another vehicle.

You would swerve to hit debris.. ? Most people swerve not to hit debris

You would think so. That logic does not prevail here. Read the article and you will see that your western attitudes, beliefs, and ways of thinking regarding debris found on the roads in Thailand earn you bonus points if you manage to swerve and hit them head on. Merely grazing them or side swiping them will only earn you a fraction of the points in the driving game that is played here! It certainly feels like an arcade game sometimes when I'm behind the wheel in this magnificent land of enchanted roadways and mysterious traffic rules!

Note to self - don't swerve to hit debris, you might ram another vehicle.

You would swerve to hit debris.. ? Most people swerve not to hit debris

You would think so. That logic does not prevail here. Read the article and you will see that your western attitudes, beliefs, and ways of thinking regarding debris found on the roads in Thailand earn you bonus points if you manage to swerve and hit them head on. Merely grazing them or side swiping them will only earn you a fraction of the points in the driving game that is played here! It certainly feels like an arcade game sometimes when I'm behind the wheel in this magnificent land of enchanted roadways and mysterious traffic rules!

Mysterious rules?

Get in, point it. Don't look left or right. Simply go as fast as you can, in whatever form of line you like, and get there without looking at anybody else. There's not much mysterious about that.

Downtown Bangkok was quite nasty for 2 hours of power rain again,.... just saying....

Yay........

Wondering also, If it rains during songkran, do they move the festivities indoors?

The wet weather programme is the same as the dry weather programme - but wet.

Note to self - don't swerve to hit debris, you might ram another vehicle.

You would swerve to hit debris.. ? Most people swerve not to hit debris

You would think so. That logic does not prevail here. Read the article and you will see that your western attitudes, beliefs, and ways of thinking regarding debris found on the roads in Thailand earn you bonus points if you manage to swerve and hit them head on. Merely grazing them or side swiping them will only earn you a fraction of the points in the driving game that is played here! It certainly feels like an arcade game sometimes when I'm behind the wheel in this magnificent land of enchanted roadways and mysterious traffic rules!

Mysterious rules?

Get in, point it. Don't look left or right. Simply go as fast as you can, in whatever form of line you like, and get there without looking at anybody else. There's not much mysterious about that.

And don't forget to play online with your phone in Facebook while driving or send SMS to your friends. Also make sure you pull out onto a street without looking if traffic is coming.

Yay........

Wondering also, If it rains during songkran, do they move the festivities indoors?

The wet weather programme is the same as the dry weather programme - but wet.

I have a bad feeling about this year. If it starts so seriously now,.... what will happen in August, September and climax October????

Yay........

Wondering also, If it rains during songkran, do they move the festivities indoors?

The wet weather programme is the same as the dry weather programme - but wet.

I have a bad feeling about this year. If it starts so seriously now,.... what will happen in August, September and climax October????

Don't worry Lee. There's plenty of dams to store this rainfall in at the present time.

What a pathetic lot these news hounds are. Tropical storm my ass. It rained and as a result of years of neglect and mismanagement Bangkok roads turn in to chaos.(again and again and again) Perhaps up-country did have the taste of a storm but here in Bangkok we simply got a taste of ignorance and inefficiency.

In Surin we get nothing as usual

Yay........

Wondering also, If it rains during songkran, do they move the festivities indoors?

The wet weather programme is the same as the dry weather programme - but wet.

I have a bad feeling about this year. If it starts so seriously now,.... what will happen in August, September and climax October????

Don't worry Lee. There's plenty of dams to store this rainfall in at the present time.

You are kidding right????.... *Same old method in disguise.... Flood the rest of Thailand deja vu...." Anyone???

Sri Racha dry as a bone with a nice sea breeze ( just normal down here)

The wet weather programme is the same as the dry weather programme - but wet.

I have a bad feeling about this year. If it starts so seriously now,.... what will happen in August, September and climax October????

Don't worry Lee. There's plenty of dams to store this rainfall in at the present time.

You are kidding right????.... *Same old method in disguise.... Flood the rest of Thailand deja vu...." Anyone???

Not funny! . I live in Phatum, and we get the worst. I lost my house and all belongings in 2011, plus my car. I do get your point, by the way. I asked my wife only last week, "What's with all this rainfall at the start of the hot season?" She said, "it's just Thainess."

i don't see what all the fuss is about, this was par for the course in my time in BKK. Also back then I heard real old hands talk about the 10,000 year rains in 1983 when the streets were up to knee deep for 3 months.

why is this news?

thailand is a tropical country, tropical rain storms like this happen with great regularity. in fact there was a bigger storm only last week...

nice to feel human for a few hours until the heat and humidity build up again.

Agreed ... since Thailand is in the tropics, is not any storm, by definition, a "tropical storm". You rarely see headlines in the UK "temperate storm brings rain".

Yay........

Wondering also, If it rains during songkran, do they move the festivities indoors?

I am sure they will especially if you invite everyone in with there squirt guns and buckets of ice water.

Note to self - don't swerve to hit debris, you might ram another vehicle.

You would swerve to hit debris.. ? Most people swerve not to hit debris

Either way...you might still ram another vehicle. Thai's do not even need debris at all, for that.

Check out the radar. Looks like another line of heavy storms rolling in just in time for evening rush hour:

http://www2.tmd.go.th/radar/svp120Loop.php

More bad news...

Songkran cancelled this year, due to rain.

Okay , it started raining now , heavy rain showers in Jomtien, everyone is happy as long as we can avoid the flooding, we'll see.....

It's also coming down ... Actually, it's coming down and sideways here in Chonburi City. I thought we were going to avoid it, as it was hot and sunny when I first read this post. If I had known, I would have gone out for lunch. Now, we are being held captive by the torrential downpour and my son just keeps saying "pork and rice" because I promised to take him to our favorite restaurant for lunch. Sigh! I guess these aren't real problems, as it will stop eventually and we will have our pork and rice when it does!