UPDATING All Day, Every Day
SERIOUS flooding was reported at 11am around Central Festival Phuket in Phuket City today - with the incomplete underpass being used by vehicles to escape waterlogged roads above. A surprised Phuketwan reader had to look twice. Traffic was moving south but ''absolutely jam-packed'' going north.
Original Report
PHUKET: Heavy rain lashed Phuket again on Saturday as officials feared more landslips above the holiday island's holiday hub of Patong and along the Andaman coast.
A dramatic slide on Friday that crushed cars but injured nobody demonstrated how easily the earth gives way when soaked with continuous rain.
Retaining walls built to local standards are often no match for nature. Observers look up at Phuket's hillsides and note constructions going up on steep slopes that seem to defy gravity and commonsense.
Death comes each year on Phuket for construction workers who have so far been the most common victims of questionable building techniques on Phuket slopes.
As the dramatic Phuketwan photo album illustrates, the local building standards are no match for porous earth and consistent downpours of the kind now loosening the island's hillsides and threatening to flood low-lying areas of Patong, Chalong and Phuket City.
The forecast is for more rain. Local authorities on Phuket and in Phang Nga and Krabi are on alert for landslips.
I passed by just 30 min ago and was surprised to see cars being directed to use as of yet incomplete underpass. Everybody going north used it
Posted by christian on August 16, 2014 12:12