Big waves batter southern coast again

A STORM surge and subsequent flood in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat swept 10 vacant homes into the sea in the hard-hit Pak Phanang district early yesterday while many local schools were forced to close temporarily. 

Local officials said later that 88 villages in six districts had been affected by the big waves. 

The “highest tide rise in 50 years” saw waves up to four-metres hit Pak Phanang coastal areas, swamping homes, farmland and fishponds. 

It also made parts of the beachside Pak Phanang to Hua Sai Road in Tambon Khanab Nak and Tha Phraya impassable – a three-kilometre section had waves crossing the road and hitting dozens of homes. 

Army and disaster prevention and mitigation officials helped residents move belongings to safer grounds. 

Fisherman Chiew Channuan, 68, said he had to stay in his house, which was on the verge of being hit by waves because he didn’t earn any income from fishing at present – so he had no where to go. 

Many families called for state agencies to find a permanent solution to the storm surges, rather than just donating relief bags and leaving.

In Muang district, Wat Mukthara School in Tambon Pak Nakhon was flooding by a high tide. Teachers had to move items to higher ground and cancel classes yesterday. 

Local communities and fishponds were flooded while fishing boats had to anchor in canals due to the strong wind and waves. 

Thirteen of the 85 homes in Ban Koh Rad, a community of Thai-Chinese fishermen in Surat Thani’s Don Sak district, were damaged yesterday, as well as a 275-metre section of a Bt3 million beachside trail. 

Ferries to the islands in the Gulf had to be assessed hourly, with only three trips made early yesterday.

On the Andaman coast, a speed boat was sent out from Phi Phi Island to pick up four French and two Argentinean tourists and take them to Krabi yesterday after they were stranded at Koh Phai by waves since Sunday. 

The rough weather turned over a long-tail boat with six Chinese tourists off Krabi on Sunday, killing a 64-year-old woman and injuring five others. The boat was heading from Koh Phai to Ao Nang when it was hit by three-metre waves. 

Krabi authorities ordered small boats to stay put until today (Feb 9). 

In Chumphon’s Muang district, the First Naval Region dispatched a Dornier patrol plane to assess the weather and a plan to retrieve a Thai cargo ship, the “Santhat Samut 1”, which was swept to shallow water 500 metres off Ban Khor Son Beach on Saturday. The captain and six crew were still on the 60-container ship with up to three days of food. But big waves forced a delay to the plan to tow the ship out. 

Upper Thailand, meanwhile, has been hit by chilly weather since Sunday. Phetchabun’s popular Phu Thub Berk in Lom Kao district reported a temperature of 3 degrees Celsius, while Chiang Mai’s Doi Inthanon National Park reported 0 Celsius and the “highest amount of frozen dew in the past year”, which impressed many tourists. 

Similar cold and frozen dew was also reported in higher areas of Loei.