chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 5, 2024 6:43:07 GMT 7
What a ferkin mess!
Our area has never flooded in living memory but yesterday and last night it became subterranean! As excess capacity was released from the Mae Tang reservoir, that water founds us and cascaded down the soi's and flooded everywhere. I mean floods of water of such a proportion that they were previously impossible to imagine. The irrigation klong that divides our garden is fed by a two meter pipe that is normally one third full, last night it was 100% and under massive back pressure, the water was shooting out of there with horrendous force. There was nothing we could do about it other than to let it pass across our land and escape at the other end, ominously it kept rising until the bridge across the klong was impassable and the gardens on both side started to flood. The water was less than six inches from the house when we went to bed.
Water that overflowed the klongs came down the sois and started to creep up our driveway, we're the first house so a marker for what would happened eventually to all our neighbours. We were saved in part by a full length two meter high perimeter wall that kept the garden dry, apart from klong flooding. This morning at 5am the water levels are down a little, the 2 meter klong pipe is now 5/6's full and we can cross the bridge and the main flooding appears to have receded. We'll be OK I think, as long as there are no further water releases from the dam, the ground is too saturated and the overflow areas are now full. Chiang Mai city will be an absolute nightmare today. I've seen some pictures of downtown with waste deep water, all of this will do untold damage and be very very costly.
Fingers crossed for today.
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Mosha
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Post by Mosha on Oct 5, 2024 6:52:57 GMT 7
We're in a La Nina event now, and that does bring more water to SE Asia. I hope you can keep it out of the house. Our house is in the pan handle of open valley up stream. All the water that falls there comes past our house. We've had the now unused half floor downstairs flooded a few times.
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 5, 2024 7:43:08 GMT 7
We're only single story but we have an attic that is large and accessible by step ladder, that's our plan B for the smaller things but bigger things will have to suffer. Difficult choice last night to leave the cars where they are or move them to somewhere likely to remain drier, you just don't know and can't tell where that might be. I'm taking a sledge hammer to my bridge over the klong today, also to the garden wall where the klong exists our land, if we can create a path for the water to simply pass us by, that may help.
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oldie
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Flooding
Oct 5, 2024 14:12:23 GMT 7
via mobile
rott likes this
Post by oldie on Oct 5, 2024 14:12:23 GMT 7
Gawd, about time you gave us a running commentary. I was about to log on at the other place.
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 5, 2024 15:03:58 GMT 7
Downtown CM is ferked, even outlying areas that have never seen water before are flooded. McCormick Hospital is nearly all the way to Central Festival and it's one meter deep! Friends on a weekend break in CM at a 4 star are being rehoused because no electric or food available.
Heard from reliable source that another water release is due from Chiang Dao tonight, why doesn't it use the bypass/ring road....grrr.
Went into the klong waste deep with a sledge but I no longer have enough muscle power, we're looking around for a tame gorilla to tackle the wall. The klong has been a foot deep in mud these past months, this morning there was not a trace, such was the force of the flow.
A friend nearby owns a house on the edge of the rice fields. A klong flows behind his house, behind a two meter garden wall and then out to the fields. The other side of the klong is a neighbours land with a massive garden, it also has a two meter wall hence the klong has walls both sides. Overnight, 1 am to be precise, friend heard a loud bang and went to investigate. The klong had risen to 1.9 meters and produced so much pressure on the two walls that the neighbours wall gave out (phew), over thirty meters of walling just gone flat and the water has found new land to drain into. The rice fields look like the North Atlantic, thousands of rai of submerged rice, make a nice boating lake. Economic damage is huge, expect rice price to sky rocket. My running track is in the middle of the fields, it's gone.
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oldie
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Post by oldie on Oct 5, 2024 15:15:18 GMT 7
Gawd blimey. Do you wanna borrow a pair of high heels?
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 5, 2024 15:40:33 GMT 7
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oldie
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Post by oldie on Oct 5, 2024 15:42:45 GMT 7
And for those of us left wondering...
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 6, 2024 5:53:56 GMT 7
It looks like the crisis is over for us, for now at least, less so for people in the City....a friends business on Chan Klang is heavily flooded, a hairdressers shop waste deep in water.....heartbreaking.
Our klong is back to normal and the streets are dry once again, we haven't ventured beyond the house in a few days so I don't know the state of play outside. Maybe we'll be brave and venture out today and will report back.
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 6, 2024 11:04:50 GMT 7
A picture and a map showing the extent of the flooding. The picture is of the Mahidol Road leading to the airport with Global House on the right. GH is now waist deep in water and offers swimming lessons on Mondays and Thursdays. The map is in Thai but is self explanatory. The city center or the Moat is the square to the left of blue flooded area. The lime green road to the right of the flooded is the main Lamphun Highway that has Central Festival and Bangkok Hospital on the side.   |
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Oct 6, 2024 14:30:47 GMT 7
Friends of ours booked an away stay in Chiang Mai, they live upcountry and periodically visit the city for supplies. They're on the 18th floor, the hotel is flooded and there's no electricity and no food in the restaurants...this is their video from their room. www.facebook.com/639432782/videos/657858076566533/ |
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rott
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Post by rott on Oct 6, 2024 14:49:14 GMT 7
Gawd, about time you gave us a running commentary. I was about to log on at the other place. I concur, I was close to expressing concern myself. He could have had it a lot worse, in Chang Mai too who'd have thunk it. |
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