Landslide on Phuket bypass road causes serious damage

PHUKET: Another landslide on the bypass road last night caused over one million baht in damage to stock at the Adisak Trading Company warehouse in Phuket, which was due to be cleared of stock today.

Warehouse chief clerk Natthaphum Ongsala, 28, said the landslide breached the warehouse roof and wall, destroying a wide range of stock including buckets of thinner, latex sealant, PVC pipe fittings, automobile spray paint and about 1,000 large buckets of house paint.

He estimated the damage at more than one million baht.

The slide couldn’t have come at a worse time: With a break in recent rainy weather, municipal workers who had been monitoring the situation around the clock for days were finally allowed home yesterday.

“We had planned to remove all stock from the warehouse today, but when we arrived at 8:30am we discovered the damage,” said Mr Natthaphum, who concluded that the slide must have occurred overnight.

“It looks like we will have to wait to let the landslides stop first, then we will try to find a solution. We are now renting out space in many warehouse to store salvaged stock,” he said.

Adisak Trading assistant manager Anucha Amitr, 34, said workers from the Rassada Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation intended to take advantage of clear weather today to begin clearing out soil from previous slides with backhoes.

When they arrived they were surprised to find that the slide had occurred in the absence of heavy rainfall and the work they had planned was now impossible.

— Atchaa Khamlo