South of Thailand welcomes 2012 with massive floods, landslides and mudslides

By Cassandra James, Asia Travel Examiner
4 January 2012 Just as the north of Thailand and Bangkok has begun the clean-up after our massive flooding that lasted more than three months, the south of the country is now experiencing flooding — for the third time in just a few months. While some southern cities like Nakhon Si Thammarat and Yala are beginning to dry out, after floods last week, other cities in Thailand’s south are experiencing new floods and, with them, landslides and mudslides. A happy beginning to 2012 for Thailand’s south it’s not. In one village near Nakhon Si Thammarat, a landslide was so severe it has completely blocked off access to an entire village, and to a school within the village. Other villages have experienced mudslides, with villagers now concerned about continuing floods causing even more mudslides. Landslides are a direct result of Thailand’s out-of-control deforestation. Surprising to those who haven’t witnessed Thailand’s terrible floods, but not so much to those of us who have however, many trains are still running (although some train service has been suspended) and almost all of Air Asia’s flights are flying in and out of southern cities with little disruption. In fact, Thais are extremely good at organizing during natural disasters as, unfortunately, the country has so many of them. So, even as the south of the country is flooding and thousands of homes in low-lying areas are under water, people are still going about their daily lives as much as possible. And that includes the usual services for trains, planes and, yes, automobiles. The problem for the south now though is going to be how much rain they get over the next few weeks, how fast flooding ends, and how quickly it drains and the land begins to dry up. While 2011 was a terrible year for Thailand as far as floods go, the 2012 rainy season will start at the beginning of April. If flood water hasn’t drained from southern areas by then, or more arrives, 2012 has the potential to be even worse than 2011. […]