The Flooding in Thailand

We Are Moated! Is It Climate Change?

Fellow Thailand based substacker Nicholas Creed wrote about the flooding in Thailand. This is mostly a remnant of typhoon now tropical storm Yagi, which is supposed to last until Tuesday September 17. The northern provinces have been especially hard hit but the entire country has been experiencing torrential rain:

Sunday Sundries: Thailand Flood Edition

I find it fascinating that just 2-3 weeks ago there was massive news coverage of flooding in Phuket, including a facebook page to mark myself as safe from it. Yes, it has been raining for pretty much the past month straight, to the point where I can really only think of one sunny day during that time where I don’t recall any rain at all. This one, however, is worse looking than the downpour 2 or so weeks ago, in that a lot more is flooded.

We are moated in right now, which is a way of saying that although we are in a high covered area in a not in use restaurant, the flood waters are on all sides surrounding us. Most paths are under at least 1-2 feet of water. To illustrate here is the west facing view of the beach. As you might notice the seating outside is under water:

Here is the South view, where water is creeping up into the restaurant. It’s well beyond the South parking lot now:

Here is the north view looking towards the airport. This is supposed to be a parking lot and the lower level camping area:

Now the East side heading towards the bathroom is the best, as that only has perhaps six inches of standing water and the bathrooms themselves are elevated enough to be plenty okay. That’s how we’ve been walking out:

There still are remarkably a few hardy campers not under the cover of the restaurant. They’ve got their stuff on the highest area close to the administrative offices with plenty of tarp both above and below. The last heavy rains washed us out of that area, not because of the downpour per say but because the high wind took our tarp out and the lightning scares me:

That said we got a new three campers last night in a married couple with their one year old baby boy. They got flooded out of their home and are welcome to stay as long as they need to. But I do hope the rain will stop soon.

So is it climate change? I find it interesting that this time, which is worse than the flooding in Phuket 2 weeks ago, it is getting downplayed. Did the funding get cut off for some emergency funds to the higher ups? Is it now about everybody taking care of their own?

I don’t think it’s climate change, at least not in any man made overpopulation versus HAARP sense of the word. Tropical storms and typhoons happen and September is statistically the rainiest month in Phuket during the monsoon season. As is they say the 193 mm recorded is completely on average for the month. I’m still wondering where their measuring station is…on top of what area under a cover?

What I can say for sure is that despite all of the rainy weather the Adaman Sea has not budged one inch overall. The ocean always gives me solace like that. And the symphony of frogs is near deafening at night. As do the crickets and the birds and other creatures. It’s like a symphony:

How is the weather where you are?

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