Northern border market under 30cm of floodwater

By The Nation

 

 

The Sai River, swollen by days of heavy rain, flooded markets on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border late Thursday night.

 

Popular markets in both Tachileik in Myanmar and Mae Sai in Chiang Rai were inundated, with vendors rushing to move their goods to safety.

 

Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn instructed Mae Sai district chief Chutidej Meechan early Friday to get Disaster Prevention and Mitigation officials to Ban Sai Lomjoi village and the Sai Lomjoi Market community after homes there were deluged.

 

Floodwaters at the market were 30 centimetres deep.

 

The Army’s Pha Mueang Task Force based in Mae Sai also dispatched troops to help.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30324182

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-18

Seems to happen every rainy season. Note to self, don't try crossing from Mae Sai to Tachilek between June and September. Border could be closed due to water inundating the immigration offices on both sides.

But look for bargains in water-damaged goods during October ?

 

The river is wadeable at drier times of the year, and often is, by informal import/export traders.

I've never seen it up to the bridge, let alone over, there's no reason to close the crossing.

 

1 hour ago, sceadugenga said:

I've never seen it up to the bridge, let alone over, there's no reason to close the crossing.

I reckon if I didn't make a reply to this thread in the first place, no one would have bothered replying.

 

The bridge has closed in the past due to flooding, 2013 was one such year when it was closed for quite a while and last year was another - it seems that nearly every year there is a day or two when the border closes for this reason. It's usually the Myanmar side that makes the call, they usually don't need much to close the border. In 2011, they closed the Thai-Myanmar border at Mae Sot for nearly a year because a tiny bit of their riverbank collapsed and ended up on the Thai side.

I have been to Mae Sai several times when there has been flooding and they do close the crossing if the water each side is deep.  More so on the Burmese side.

There goes all that trash.  Good time to clean the property.  Looks waist deep not 30 cm.  

Welcome to life in the tropics

48 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Welcome to life in the tropics

Depends where...With rare exceptions like the floods of 2011, Bangkok doesn't have to put up with this kind of terrible flooding. It's always northern, southern Thailand or Isarn that are affected. Bangkok might get some localized flooding that clears up after a few hours and that's usually the worst is sees. This year there doesn't seem to be that much rainfall in Bangkok, it's kinda strange hearing about all the flooding in places like Sakhon Nakorn, Mae Sai and elsewhere whereas the worst Bangkok has experienced is 3-4 hours continuous light rainfall overnight followed by partly cloudy skies in the morning.