PHUKET: It was Groundhog Day today for Patong as the island's main holiday town sank beneath a deluge. Actually in the case of Patong, make that Groundwater Day.
Phuket's fun town sank beneath the torrent yesterday and, once that water was all cleared, a second torrent today left the two key facilities - the hospital and the police station - incapable of maintaining normal services.
It's odd to think that just a few years ago, Prab Keesin, son of former Mayor Pian Keesin, was bold enough to speculate that Patong could turn out to be another Singapore.
The infrastructure that would be required to make Patong into a Singapore appears unlikely to arrive soon.
New Mayor Chalermlak Kebsub will be hailed as a hero if she can make Patong's drainage system work again the way it did before greedy developers were allowed to build and block canals.
Elsewhere on Phuket, authorities prematurely opened the unfinished underpass outside Central Festival Phuket so that traffic could flow where floods could not - beneath ground level.
Drainage appeared to be working in the underpass but has not improved on the surface.
Phuket's fun town sank beneath the torrent yesterday and, once that water was all cleared, a second torrent today left the two key facilities - the hospital and the police station - incapable of maintaining normal services.
It's odd to think that just a few years ago, Prab Keesin, son of former Mayor Pian Keesin, was bold enough to speculate that Patong could turn out to be another Singapore.
The infrastructure that would be required to make Patong into a Singapore appears unlikely to arrive soon.
New Mayor Chalermlak Kebsub will be hailed as a hero if she can make Patong's drainage system work again the way it did before greedy developers were allowed to build and block canals.
Elsewhere on Phuket, authorities prematurely opened the unfinished underpass outside Central Festival Phuket so that traffic could flow where floods could not - beneath ground level.
Drainage appeared to be working in the underpass but has not improved on the surface.
Perhaps they should replace motorbike taxis with jet-skis.
Posted by ThaiMike on August 16, 2014 16:31