Tropical storm Pabuk edges closer to southern Thailand

A strengthening tropical storm is edging closer to southern Thailand, prompting thousands of people to seek shelter inland, suspending ferry services and closing a major airport.

Tropical storm Pabuk is forecast to make landfall on Friday evening in Nakhon Si Thammarat and bring torrential downpours and strong winds to more than a dozen other provinces in the south, home to one of the world’s biggest natural rubber plantations and several islands popular with domestic and foreign tourists.

In Nakhon Si Thammarat, the airport was closed and authorities made rounds on Friday morning urging people to leave before roads are blocked, while in the Gulf of Thailand the winds accompanying the potentially damaging storm churned up high waves and gusts.

“The strong winds are forecast with waves up to three to five meters high in the Gulf and two to three meters high in the Andaman Sea. All ships (should) keep ashore,” the Thai Meteorological Department said in a statement early on Friday, adding that the storm had maximum winds of 80 kilometres per hour.

Lamai beach, Koh Samui [Florence Looi/Al Jazeera]

Officials expect the conditions to persist into Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi, reporting from the island of Koh Samui on Friday noon, said the effects of the incoming storm could be seen and felt in the holiday destination, where all flights and ferry services had been suspended.

“The waves are much more powerful than normal, they are reaching up to three metres and are coming much further inland,” she added.

Over the past few days, 6,176 people have been evacuated to shelters from Nakhon Si Thammarat as well as the provinces of Pattani, Songkhla and Yala, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has said.

An evacuation centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat province [Sumeth Panpetch/The Associated Press]

‘Unusual storm’

Looi said Pabuk has been described as “unusual” because it is “taking place outside of the monsoon season for this part of the world”, noting that the last time something like this happened in Thailand was three decades ago.

Waves crash along an oil rig in the Gulf of Thailand [Facebook/Loong Keng Jai Dee via Reuters]

“The good news is that forecasters say they do not anticipate the tropical storm to strengthen to a typhoon, but we are still expecting to see sustained rainfall possibly and very likely into Saturday, which means there is still a threat of flooding, landslides and mudslides in the southern provinces,” Looi added.

Photos posted on social media showed dark sky, very heavy rains and violent sea waves.

National energy company PTT Exploration and Production Pcl said it had suspended operations at Bongkot and Erawan, two of the country’s biggest gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand.

Looi said that more than 2,000 workers on offshore rigs have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.

“In some of the southern provinces, officials have also given the order to start releasing water from reservoirs to decrease the potential from flash floods,” she added.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies