Ao Luk Flooding - March 2011

Heavy rains in the south of Thailand have finally calmed down and the sun is back out doing its job. However, GVI Thailand would like to raise awareness of the extreme damage caused by these rains and the flooding over the past 2 weeks. The aerial picture taken from a plane (above) shows how wet the area got around the flood plains of Krabi.

GVI Ao Luk broke up for a well deserved holiday on 19th March when the weather was wonderful. On return to the GVI base, the office had flooded mildly and the electricity was down :( Leaks around the house and damp in all the bedrooms were the least of our worries as we were called on by the community to initiate flood damage control with the Ao Luk municipality volunteer fire brigade.

The low lands near the river had flooded to knee level and our job was to provide sand bags so that waterproof dams could be built outside front doors to avoid houses from flooding further. Brandishing nothing but a rain mac and a fancy matching umbrella-ella-ella, we made our way to the affected area and jumped on the back of the fire truck to start filling rice bags with sand along with the other volunteer fire brigade members. Emma (GVI Ao Luk's base manager) showed the men what to do and Nong (GVI's very own rockstar) led the way by interpreting and distributing the portable dams.

Watching people's houses flood is a horrible feeling and most people were helplessly onlooking as the fire truck made its way slowly around the village trying to help as many people as it could as quickly as possible. The children still managed to make light of the flooding by splashing and frollicking, such is the Thai way of enjoying what you have!

The floods have led to devastating landslides in Khao Phanom and have killed 53, left 40,000 in temporary housing and affected up to 2 million people in 10 provinces in the south of Thailand since the last week of March. Please help raise awareness and post this on Facebook or email through to friends and family. If anyone would like to donate for flood relief, please email thailandbase(at)gvi.co.uk for further directions.

Written by Charlie - Project Manager

Ao Luk Flooding - March 2011