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Tourists flee Thai islands as Tropical Storm Pabuk looms
BANGKOK, Jan 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Tens of thousands of tourists have fled
the Thai resort islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao in a mass exodus ahead of
Tropical Storm Pabuk which is set to bring heavy rains, wind and seven-metre
(22-foot) waves, officials said Thursday.
The islands, hugely popular with holiday-makers especially during the peak
Christmas and New Year season, have emptied out since Wednesday as tourists
packed onto ferries bound for the southern Thai mainland, with swimming
banned and boats set to suspend services.
Pabuk, Thailand’s first tropical storm in the area outside of the monsoon
season for around 30 years, is poised to batter Koh Phangan and Koh Tao as
well as Koh Samui on Friday night, before cutting into the mainland.
No official evacuation order has been given but tourists are leaving in
droves.
“I think the islands are almost empty… between 30,000 to 50,000 have
left since the New Year’s Eve countdown parties,” Krikkrai Songthanee, Koh
Phangnan district chief, told AFP.
The acting mayor of Koh Tao, one of Southeast Asia’s finest diving spots,
said boats to Chumphon on the mainland were crammed with tourists, but
several thousand guests were still on the island likely to brave the storm.
Pabuk was packing winds of 104 kilometres per hour (65 mph) but was
unlikely to intensify into a full blown typhoon, according to forecasters.
“But we expect waves as high as five or seven metres near the eye of the
storm. Normally in the Gulf of Thailand there are only two metre high waves,”
Phuwieng Prakammaintara, director general at the Thai Meteorological
Department, told reporters.
“It’s difficult to predict the severity of the storm so people should
comply with authorities’ recommendations.”
On Koh Samui, the closest of the trio of islands, a Russian man drowned on
Wednesday after his family ignored warnings not to go into the sea.
“A family of three went swimming but the strong current caught a 56-year-
old man who drowned,” Police Captain Boonnam Srinarat of Samui Police told
AFP.
“Island officials anounced the warning and put up the red ‘danger’
flags… but maybe the family did not think the situation was that serious.”
Authorities on the island said they were preparing shelters for any
tourists who decide to wait out the storm.
Pabuk, which means a giant catfish in Lao, is also expected to dump heavy
rain across the south, including tourist hotspots in the Andaman Sea such as
Krabi and the southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia of Pattani,
Narathiwat and Yala.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1137 hrs