Tuesday 29 March 2011

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 29th March, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui is waking up under very dark clouds and is about to assess last nights torrential rain damage. Just over 400mm came down over the last 24 hours and 90mm between 1 and 4am. There will be damage to roads and buildings, I just hope it all will be within limits and reason.
Current temp at 7am is still 25C

The tendency is that all long term residents have never experienced anything like the current floods, even the November 2010 floodings were not as bad as the current situation.
The water levels in front of our house on the road between Plai Laem and Choengmon have never been as high as they are now. A lot of problems are caused because the water is 'boxed' in and can't follow it's natural flow to the ocean because of too much construction blocking the way to the ocean.

There are power cuts all over the island, so land phone lines won't work and the batteries on mobile phones will be getting very low soon or are dead already. The power cuts are either genuinely because of over load and are partly on purpose in order to avoid electrocutions. The spaghetti wire above the roads doesn't really look too re-assuring.
Max temp yesterday didn't get any higher than 26.5C

The current prediction is about another 80mm of rain for Samui and surrounding islands until 7pm today and than it's supposed to ease off with sun and no waves and wind starting from Friday onwards.

Good luck to everybody on Samui, hope it will be all good again very soon!

The situation on Koh Phangang and Koh Tao is not looking good, especially Koh Tao seems to have had some serious battering with plenty of structural damage and they must be running low on food and especially drinking water by now. I don't expect the airport to open today, due to wind and rain.


The overall situation in the South of Thailand is very bad, see the chart below. The current death toll is nine. The Nation resports; Flood waters are now wreaking havoc in the provinces of Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Trang, Krabi and Phatthalung.
To date, 13 districts of Surat Thani have been declared disaster zones, with the inundation having damaged four bridges, 11 roads and two temples.

Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said the flooding had damaged 613 schools in Trang, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Songkhla and Phatthalung.

Bangkok Airways cancelled all 36 domestic and international flights in and out of Samui yesterday, due to the severe thunderstorms hitting the island and the surrounding area. It said affected passengers should contact its ticketing office to rebook their flights at no additional charge.

Meanwhile, just as the floods have been raging in the South, PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtaey said 47 other provinces were suffering from drought.


Chaweng ring road

Koh Lanta's sky is also dark and grey but the amount of rainfall here is just a fraction of what came down in other parts of Thailand. Current temp at 7am is 25.5C an yesterday's max temp reached 27.6C.

Yesterday saw some heavy rain but nothing serious. 'Just' 45mm of rain in 24 hours. All dive boats were cancelled yesterday though and I'm not sure if the dive boats will run today. As far as I know the car ferries are still running.

A next updated is not expected before noon since I'm conducting and IDC on Lanta and won't have time to be online that much.

Keep hitting the right buttons though to upgrade my beer allowance and if you plan on booking hotels on Samui or around Thailand, please use the links provided, all bookings through these sites will help me make more beer money!

Camille


40 comments:

Sorin said...

Hi Camille,
Can you tell me if the train service from Chumphon to Bangkok is still running ? What about the ferry from Koh Tao to Chumphon ?
Thanks a lot,
Sorin

Camille said...

Hi Sorin,

No ideas about trains, Chumpon is apparently also affected badly.

Definitely no ferries running in the Gulf right now!

Anonymous said...

Hi Camille,

any idea till when this will continue.. I have a travel for May and would like to proceed with hotel bookings but for obvious reasons I am skeptical to do so.


Thanks a ton!!

Camille said...

Come this weekend and the predictions are sunshine, hot and no wind and waves!

Anonymous said...

It's great to have a local's view of what's going on Camille, thank you! Please keep posting...not sure whether to cancel at this point. We're due to fly into Samui this Friday, even if the weather improves can the island/roads/beaches etc recover that quickly? (And so much for the snorkel trip perhaps?!)

Camille said...

Providing that you can fly in come Friday, which according to the predictions should be highly likely, the whole island will still be dealing with the after affects of this massive storm.

No snorkeling I'm afraid, zero viz!

Anonymous said...

This is really handy Camille, we're due to be arriving in Chaweng in 3 weeks time, and Koh Tao in 4 weeks. Really hoping everything will have recovered by then. I'll keep checking back to see the progress.

Camille said...

3 to 4 weeks I would expect all the damage to have been dealt with!

Kris said...

Hallo Camille,

ik volg met interesse je updates over de situatie op de Thaise eilanden.

Mijn vriendin zit sinds zondag als backpacker "vast" op Koh Samui in Palm Point (Maenam resort). Ben in contact met haar via SMS.
Ze zou graag een boot nemen naar Ko Tao, maar volgens je blog zou het daar momenteel nog erger zijn?

Heb je enig idee of het ergste nu achter de rug is en wanneer er terug wordt uitgevaren?

Bedankt voor de info!

Groeten,
Kris

Camille said...

Hallo Kris,

Ja, Koh Tao is helaas heel hard geraakt! Er zijn sowieso geen boten op het moment. Vanaf het weekend zou het weer beter moeten worden!

Succes en groeten

Unknown said...

Thanks very much for your information Camille! I plan on buying you a beer (or maybe 5 beers) once I arrive around April 15 or 16. Your local perspective is really valuable.

My best to all the folks struggling through the difficulties on Samui and elsewhere!

- Sean

Anonymous said...

Hi Camille,
Hope that you and all your family are OK. It all sounds really bad!

We're are due to fly into Samui for two weeks on the 8th of April how do you think things will be by then? (sorry I know this sounds incredibly selfish)

Thank you,

Daisy

Unknown said...

We are currently stranded in Bangkok airport hoping to catch a flight to Koh Samui for our honeymoon. Our dilemma is this, continue with our travel (when we can..) or look at goning to Pattaya. What do you reccomend (you know exactly what the conditions are like there so are well placed to advise!)

Thanks!
Melissa

Anonymous said...

Hello Camille, great source of local hotel and other infomraiton. My son Jeffrey is on Koh Tao and was planning to get to Koh Samui as soon as the
ferries start running again. Any local inexpensive accomidations you can
recommend? Thank you.

Camille said...

Mermaids next to the Seatran pier, is also near the airport.

Simon said...

Hi Camille, i will be coming on this sat and stay at Noraburi the beachfront villas. You think it will be a problem? And i think i can count diving out right? Water must be murky.

Simon

Camille said...

Hi Simon,

By Saturday I expect the airport to be open, but Samui will be in full clean up mode. It should be sunny according to predictions but diving might be a bit of a stretch by than. Murky indeed I'm afraid.

Camille said...

Hi Rodimus,

Thanks!! Your support is appreciated and come the 16th things should be under control again!

Camille said...

Hi Daisy,

Everything should be fine within two weeks from now, I expect all clean up week pretty much to be finished by than.

Camille said...

Hi Melissa,

Divert to Pattaya, airport may still be closed today and clean up work will take at least a week.

Anonymous said...

Hi Camille,

Great info here so thank you! I am due to arrive on the 8th April in Chewang, Samui but I am worried. I travel with my entire family for my own wedding on island. There will be 39 of us in total ready for the wedding day on the 22nd April.
Do you think the beaches will be clear/clean and the water visibility good enough for snorkeling for when we arrive on the 8th/9th?

Thanks

Tony

Camille said...

Hi Tony,

By the 8th I expect the clean up works to be in their final phase. By the 22nd all should be back to normal.

The clarity of the water may take a week or so at least to settle down again.

Bee Watson said...

Hi Camille!

Thank you for you blog it's been really helpful. My brother is in Lamai, Koh Samui (Rim Guesthouse) He's travelling alone and we lost contact with him yesterday afternoon as he must have run out of phone battery. Do you have any idea how badly affected this area is? We've heard parts of the island are being evacuated to higher ground - do you know if this area is one of them?

Would be really grateful for any information. Thank you so much

Bee :)

Camille said...

Hi Bee,

Lamai has been hit fairly hard with lots of flooding and it's likely his phone ran out of battery power. Nothing to get too worried about, no idea right now which parts of Samui would've been taken to higher grounds, some of the temples have also been flooded!

I wouldn't worry too much though, the worst is over now.

Mick said...

Many Thanks
Camille.

Regards
Mick

Camille said...

You're welcome Mick.

Greg said...

Thanks! Hopefully the ferry will start again soon and he can get off Koh
Tao. Have a great day!

Camille said...

I'm sure he will be fine Greg.

Today the Thai Navy started to evacuate people from Koh Tao.

Cathy said...

Hi Camille
Glad to hear you are OK. it sounds terrible. I was due to fly into Samui on Sunday night to stay at the lodge at Bophut. Do you know how things are there? should i stay away because everyone will be busy cleaning up.
thanks for your blog
cathy

Camille said...

Hi Cathy,

Clean up work will take a few days, maybe a week or more. Your decision if you want to be here whilst that is in full swing.

Would you have alternatives?

Anonymous said...

Hi Camillie, your blogging had really helped along with all your answers to peoples questions, however I am still worried I'm meant to be going to Koh Samui next Thursday staying for 5 days then to Koh Phangyang (sorry don't know how to spell it) for 7 days,
Do you think things will be cleared in each area by this time?
Thankyou
Megan

Greg said...

Thank you for the update! Would they bring them all back to Koh Samui or
to the Bangkok? If he goes to Koh Samui he needs to buy you a nice dinner
on me for your excellent local information you're provide us. My wife
thanks you!

Camille said...

You're welcome Greg!

Lee said...

Thank you very much for your post. That is really helpful to give us (the incoming tourist) the 1st hand news on what's going on in Samui!!

I hope you are fine over there.

Camille said...

Thanks Lee,
All is good so far!

Roger said...

Dear Camille,

Your Blog is invaluable! We fly to Bangkok tonight then on to Samui
tomorrow for 2 weeks. Some think we are mad, but we are not fussed. With
4 small kids, staying in a villa, will things be back to a degree of
normality or will it still be utter chaos...? Not too fussed either way
but just so we can come prepared!!

Thanks

Roger

Camille said...

Hi Roger,

It may be a bit of a challenge but things are getting back to normal and the weather forecasts are good. Be prepared for some degree of improvisation but overall things are returning to normal.

Hope this helps for now and good luck and enjoy!

Sarah said...

Hi Camille, I will be coming to the Koh Samui around the 25th April. Do you
think everything will be back to normal by then or do you think i should
change my mind about coming to the Island? thank you

Camille said...

Hi Sarah,

-If you're planning to visit Koh Samui within a week or so, expect a damaged island with a lot of clean up and repair work going on. I'm sure that hotels that aren't affected will do their uttermost best to accommodate you but Samui won't be at it's prettiest!

-If you're planning to visit Samui around mid April, I would expect a lot of damage and debris been taken care of and your visit should be fine.

-Anybody planning on visiting towards the end of April or early May or even later, don't worry. Do not reschedule for November, that's usually Samui's rainy season!

Best regards,
Camille

Sarah said...

Great thank you very much. Your blog has been fantastic.