The weather conditions have been quite changeable over the last few weeks. We had a group of divers from the UK arrive last Sunday and the weather had just cleared up. We had four or five days of good conditions and we just squeezed in a Sail Rock Trip and South West – where we saw a whaleshark since then,Thursday, its rained heavily, off and on, but at around 9pm last night the rain poured down and hasn’t really stopped since, 24hours later!
Wilco made it out this morning (Mon 28th)on the pretense of going for food ( which we and our neighbour did need) but really he couldn’t wait to get out and have a look. It’s not nice out there…..
Georgie, our dog, went with him so far but she lost her footing and came back to the balcony looking dejected and bedraggled. Our cats have periodically displayed ‘children-in-a-caravan-in-wet- weather-like behavior.
We live at the top of the hill in Sairee so we are used to the hill down turning into a river but we’ve never seen it like this – even in monsoon. At 10am the top of our road was ankle deep and moving fast.
The bottom of the hill where the concrete ends had dropped away half a meter. The next bit is made of sand and now is fast moving river rapid. The rain has caused deep gullys. The sand around 2 huge boulders has eroded leaving another half meter drop. The corner of the road was not in too good a state after monsoon and then the recent rain but it has totally dropped away causing another drop but this time of 1.5 meters.
After the corner, you can see where the road used to turn left – that grey block around 2m up on the left. Look closely and you can see the house with the blue roof behind the wooden but has collapsed. We know of two other serious tree and roof altercations.
Sairee village by Morava and Choppers is underwater – its shin deep in Morava and tables and chairs are floating around. Charlotte in on the hill in Chaock where its waist deep near Aukoaon.
The main road in Sairee is also underwater. We have had reports of trees through roofs and half collapsed houses too but everyone is safe. We closed Master Divers at midday. Only Pu made it to the shop and that’s because she lives just a minute away. There’s certainly no diving and no boats so far until 30th. It’s still raining……
Me…I’m taking a lesson from our cats ……Snuggling under a blanket…
Hi, this is Charlotte, on what has been happening in Chalok in the South. There are a few flooded shops and 7-11 is closed and a lot of clearing up is going on. There are some new holes and ditches, but on the whole it is all looking OK, although the same cannot be said for parts of the road, the water depot and ” yard” opposite Aukotan nor several electricity pylons, all of which have been consumed by the torrent coming down the road and from the storm drains. What was a stream that was maybe 1.5 metres wide is more like 5-6 times the width, and a whole section of land opposite Aukotan has simply disappeared and is now a huge 1.5 metre deep mini lake – it used to be the same level as the road with a metre high bank! The ‘lake’ out of our little valley, which was waist deep when I attempted to get to work yesterday, has gone down to ankle deep this afternoon thanks to a collapsed retaining wall – I wouldn’t like to be the other side of the wall though. Like Ayesha, our exit has all but washed away. We have a 0.5 metre drop in the road, and yesterday all the sand had been deposited 10 metres further down, so when you tried to wade through, you sank up to your knees, basically into a quicksand type mix, with the rest of the brown water up near your waist; the chickens in the chicken farm were not looking happy, but at least they were quiet for a while – they are back to their usual noise today!! Where our road meets the main road, or should I say the torrent that it was yesterday, the sides of the roads have disappeared, living 0.5 metre deep and wide gullies, which you can’t see because they are filled with water. I only know this because my landlord fell into it, but no damage was done!
I am lucky – I live in a concrete house – my thoughts are with those who don’t have such luxury, like many of the Burmese on the island, whose housing is basic to say the least and is possibly just about waterproof when we have ‘normal’ wind and rain. Some have already had their housing washed away. I will leave you with that thought …..