PHUKET: People were telling of ''water everywhere'' and boats taking the place of tuk-tuks in Patong as the whole of Phuket endured one of the worst island floods in recent memory.

At noon Phuket police advised everyone not to travel unless it could not be avoided.

As reports were coming in of at least one landsip, Patong Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukban said today: ''We haven't seen water rise this high or this fast in eight years.''

Flights in and out of Phuket were cancelled for about 70 minutes as the consistent overnight downpour turned into a torrent today.

In Patong, Chalong, and other low-lying areas without drainage to cope, traffic came to a standstill for long periods. Power lines were down and the electricity supply was being restored by hard-pressed workers as the rain eased off about 11am.

Hundreds of people had their departure or arrival on Phuket disrupted. At 6am today, a British tourist died after being electrocuted when he stepped into a ''live'' puddle in Soi Bangla - and his companion had a narrow escape when he too suffered shocks.

A landslip about noon damaged two houses and a vehicle not far from the Tungtong police box on the Patong Hill road in central Phuket.

At 11am, Chao Fa Road East and Chao Fa Road West were still cut in southern Phuket at Chalong, where heavy rain continued falling.

Two power poles collapsed on Patong Hill about 9.30am at the height of the torrent, further reducing power supplies. Emergency service workers all over Phuket were battling to restore normal services, having to traverse impassable roads.

One Phuketwan reader reported: ''Water everywhere, as high as the top of parked motorbike tyres on Soi Sunset. The water running down San Sabai is very brown so coming down from the hills.

''Little vehicular traffic and walkers picking their ways very slowly as you can not see the holes and speed bumps for the murk. The tuk-tuk drivers are letting the gondoliers take people from Banzaan to Bangla - a first.''

Suchart Hirankanokkul, President of the Thai Hotels Association Southern Chapter and owner of the Graceland Phuket Resort on beach road in Patong, said the resort switched to emergency generators when power failed about 3am.

''Our guests are staying in the hotel,'' he said. ''We are looking after them. I really think that it's time there was a better system for dealing with heavy rain like this in Patong.''

Power authority officer Pipat Rattanakot said parts of Phuket had suffered cuts since early in the morning and staff had been forced to work for 20 hours straight because of the scale of the outages.

Chalong, Rawai, Kata Noi, Karon, Patong, Kalim and Kamala were all badly affected, he said, along with parts of Phuket City.