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This Phuket Cty resident woke up today to find her home flooded

The Flooding of Phuket, As It Happened

Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Today's Updating Report

PHUKET: A huge rainstorm deluged Phuket overnight triggering flooding and chaos - and forecasters say the large depression is stationary above Phuket and unlikely to move quickly.

Flooding caused an unprecedented mess on Phuket's major roads, with police advising that Thepkasattri Road - Phuket's main north-south artery - was blocked solid in Phuket City.

No alternative routes were offered for Phuket tourists who have planes to catch.

A Phuketwan reader reported that the road over Patong Hill had sprung a fresh and very large hole, and that emergency two-way traffic was operating along beach road in Patong.

Water in roads behind Patong's Jungceylon shopping complex was said to be waist-deep in places.

Traffic in Yaowarat Road, another major Phuket City thoroughfare, was slowed to a walk with huge tailbacks caused by floods outside Bangkok Hospital Phuket.

Floods were backing up all over Phuket instead of flowing into the sea because today's dramatic downpour coincided with an unusually high tide.

The standstill on the roads coincided with a report in today's Bangkok Post headlined: Phuket tourism outlook bright, infrastructure lags.

Landslips were reported in Kamala, north of Patong, and at least two Phuket schools called off classes for today. Residents reported ''roads turned into raging rivers.''

Major roads were swamped throughout Phuket City. North of Phuket, the road to Khao Lak was blocked by fallen power poles that tumbled in the severe storm.

The prediction for Phuket today: An 80 to 100 percent chance of solid, intense rain. Boats are warned not to go to sea.

The Phuket office of the Meteorological Department told Phuketwan early today that the intense storm was being caused by the convergence of the outer edges of two systems associated with typhoons.

Although Phuket does not suffer from typhoons, it does feel their effects. Sandwiched between two huge monsoon systems, Phuket tends to escape the worst of both.

But there are times when the weather pattern contrives to dump large amounts of water on Phuket. This is one of them.

Phuketwan's night shift workers discovered the office flooded when they arrived for work at 3.40am today. By that time, heavy rain had been falling on Phuket City for a couple of hours.

By daybreak, flooding roads and drains and canals can be expected. If the rain continues, as forecast, residents and tourists will find the road conditions difficult.

Some villages - including the large village of Patong - will battle flooding.

By 7am, reports of serious ''roads turned into rivers'' were coming from readers.

Two Phuket City schools - Satree Phuket and Phuket Wittayalai - announced before 7am that they would be closed today because of flooding.

Is it raining heavily where you are? Please tell us via Comment.

Comments

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100% guaranteed that Sainamyen around the hospital will only be accessed by surfboard or boat. I thought they had fixed this judging from the road works down sainayen last year . But it still flooded a couple of months ago.

Posted by carvets on August 22, 2012 05:54

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I live in Topland Village (Behind the old Phuket Post newspaper office in Sam Kong) and the street outside my house is a raging torrent - more like a fast flowing dirty brown river than a normally well-drained street. Large wheelie bins and all sorts of debris is literally racing down this 'river' at incredible speed, although the rain has almost completely stopped. I estimate it is about 18 inches deep - and rising . . .

Posted by phil on August 22, 2012 05:56

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Wat Srisoontron school is closed at Bann Liphon village - and I suspect many other will be also. Water has apparently flooded classrooms, and the dining hall. As far as I know, this has never happened before.

Posted by agogohome on August 22, 2012 09:20

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The remarkable thing about the flooding this time on San Sabai is how very muddy it is. The eastern hills will be in the ocean a this rate in a couple of years. (Slight exageration.)

Posted by ssresident on August 22, 2012 10:09

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Up in Thalang at around dusk I saw a small migration of what can only be described as huge bats - they were the size of birds of prey - quiet eery. Some were flying low and they clearly were bats - very odd.

Posted by art on August 22, 2012 11:27

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The island simply cannot take care of this amount of water, it's been raped of it's natural vegetation which would and does go a long way in preventing flash flooding.

In a day or two after the clean up it's business as usual raping the landscape just to fuel the ever growing greed.

Posted by Graham on August 22, 2012 12:01

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Sunny and dry on Nanai road in Patong.

Posted by Jerry on August 22, 2012 12:06

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SS Muddy Water - I was down on Nanai several weeks back during a rainstorm near the Nanai pool hall. Water racing down hill from the new condo's behind DD Swiss. Exploding out of the drains and onto the road. Very muddy. Next stop, Soi Baanzaan. Finally you.

Posted by GiantFan on August 22, 2012 12:09

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We missed our flight this morning. Beach Road was full of water so is Bangla.we left as early as we could from Patong but still could not make it for the flight as the road to airport was full of traffic and obstacles like water and roads caved in. Advise to travellers catching flights - get to the airport as early as you can

Posted by Jaye on August 22, 2012 13:20


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