Phuket

Tsunami blame report to be buried

Published

16 years ago

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

BANGKOK (The Nation): The public will not hear whether the Meteorological Department failed in its duty to warn people about December’s devastating tsunami, Smith Thammasaroj, the chief of the investigation into the disaster, said yesterday.

K. Smith said a report into the incident might never be written.

He said that he would conceal a tsunami report from the public out of patriotism in order to protect national interests, because some 60 relatives of Western tourists who died in the massive waves in southern Thailand might use the information in their lawsuit against the government.

“I will not and I cannot reveal it – and the report may never be published … No way, because it has become a lawsuit issue and could cause much damage,” he said.

He added that billions of baht could be lost if the Meteorological Department were found guilty of failing to warn the public and tourists in the provinces struck by the tsunami.

Last month, 19 relatives relatives of tsunami victims from Austria and Germany filed a lawsuit in New York against the government for failing to provide timely warning. “They won’t [now] have the information to sue us,” said K. Smith.

Earlier yesterday, he told an audience of about 1,000 people that he believed that many lives would have been spared if the Meteorological Department had listened to 10 percent of his suggestions concerning the possibility of a tsunami hitting the Andaman coast in southern Thailand.

By heeding his advice, he said the department would have had 75 minutes to act before the tsunami hit.

“I don’t know how to punish him,” said K. Smith, referring to the then Director-General of the Meteorological Department, Suparerk Thantiratanawong.

“Did he know about [the impending tsunami]? I can’t tell you the result, because 60 foreigners are eying to sue [the government].

“That’s why I can’t close the case, and I don’t know when I can close it.”

K. Smith acknowledged that the government might be in a Catch-22 situation. If it claimed that the department did not know the tsunami was heading toward Thailand, that could be grounds for a dereliction-of-duty lawsuit.

If it were found that officials did know the tsunami was on its way, but did not warn the public, that would also lead to a lawsuit, he said.

“Either way, they can sue us. And these farang love to sue,” he said.

The day after the tsunami struck, one of the four officers in charge of the Meteorological Department told The Nation that senior officials had toyed with the idea of issuing a warning the morning of the tsunami.

They decided not to because they feared that if there were no tsunami, the warning would have negative repercussions on the tourism industry, the official said.

K. Smith is no stranger to controversy. He was dismissed as a scaremonger and forced out of the post of Director-General of the Meteorological Department after he issued tsunami warnings in 1993 and 1998, following strong earthquakes at sea.

In neither case was Thailand affected by a tsunami, though a wave that followed the 1998 earthquake killed some 2,000 people in Papua New Guinea.

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News Categories: Phuket

Transport

Footbridges stop luxury yacht travelling from Phuket to Samui

Published

11 hours ago

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Neill Fronde

Footbridges stop luxury yacht travelling from Phuket to Samui | Thaiger

PHOTO: Thailand's version of the Suez Canal blockage.

Footbridges in Phuket stood in the way of a luxury yacht travelling from its home in Phuket to Koh Samui when the boat was too tall to pass. Police received a call around 8 pm last night from the truck driver after his trailer carrying the yacht had trouble getting under one of several bridges for walkers to pass over the highway. The boat was travelling down Thepkrasattri Road, where it was stopped by the bridge near Baan Tha Reua School. The boat also had trouble at the pedestrian bridge at the Provincial Electricity Authority Thalang Branch and the bridge at Baan Lipon School in Srisoonthorn.

All the bridges were supposed to have a 5-metre clearance, though one observer speculated that all the repaving of the road over the years may have raised the road and lowered the clearance. Traffic police responded to the first bridge incident by sending officers to direct traffic and make sure bikes and cars didn’t pass and impeded progress on freeing the boat. The second incident about 30 minutes later was resolved by letting air out of the truck’s tires to lower it just enough to pass under the bridge. The third snag prompted the driver to go in person to the Thalang Police station to request help yet again.

This time police were less amused and suggested the truck driver try to resolve the issue himself and call back to the police only if he was unable to free the luxury yacht. A traffic police officer went to follow up with the stranded boat at the end of his shift and found the driver had given up and decided to return the yacht to its Phuket origin at Boat Lagoon Marina in Koh Kaew. The boat, now damaged from the bridge bumps, wasn’t going to make it to Surat Thani to be sailed to Koh Samui on this journey. The boat radar had broken off on one of the bridges. No word on any major damage to the pedestrian bridges.

SOURCE: The Phuket News

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Hotel blog suggests Phuket should push ahead with July reopening despite Covid surge

Published

2 days ago

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Neill Fronde

Hotel blog suggests Phuket should push ahead with July reopening despite Covid surge | Thaiger

PHOTO: Hotels and other tourism business are hoping the July 1st reopening goal can still be achieved.

A hotel information blog is claiming that, despite growing Covid-19 numbers, Phuket should stick to its schedule in reopening to travellers without quarantine in July. That’s only 2 and a half months away.

In an interview with the Director of Travel and Tourism Consulting at GlobalData, they stressed that while it is crucial to rein in the spread of Covid-19 and the B117 strain now menacing Thailand, the risk must not overshadow the need to push forward with vaccinations and the march towards eliminating the quarantine by July in order to save the tourism industry and all those dependent on it.

“The Phuket pilot program is essential in creating a path towards economic recovery for Thailand, a country heavily dependent on tourism. More than 17% of Thailand’s gross domestic product is attributed to tourism and the Covid-19 pandemic has lead to the worst economic free-fall in over 20 years”

The blog acknowledges the inherent risk and possible appearance of foolishness to prioritise the plans to reopen and carry on with the same rollout schedule. But they urge Thai authorities to consider that July 1 is still 2 and a half months away, leaving ample time to recover and make progress towards the approaching Phuket reopening. A vital aspect of the reopening plan lies in vaccinating over 70% of Phuket’s provincial residents, a sizable task, but one that brings great benefit with or without the scheduled reopening.

“Pushing ahead to achieve this goal puts Phuket on track to welcome back tourists, perhaps in a “bio-bubble”, and restart the economy. The economy is desperate with household debt growing, pushing the government to enact emergency decrees to provide relief. These households need the return of tourism and the influx of cash international tourists will bring.”

The blog hopes that Thai authorities can balance the necessary Covid-19 safety measures in Phuket to protect the Thai population with the economic need to bring back tourism. They believe that with sufficient measures in place, vaccinated locals could welcome vaccinated international tourists back to Phuket reopening safely in July.

SOURCE: Hotel News Resource

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

UPDATE: Field hospitals being established in Covid hot zones around Thailand

Published

3 days ago

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Tim Newton

UPDATE: Field hospitals being established in Covid hot zones around Thailand | Thaiger

UPDATE: The field hospital in Bangkok’s Bang Bon district, west of the Chao Phraya river, had its first 10 Covid patients today. The director of the medical services office of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration says that the 10 patients into the makeshift hospital, located at the Chalerm Phra Kiat Stadium, will enable assessment of the performance by the medical team, before more patients arrive – Thai PBS World

ORIGINAL STORY: Despite the confident posture and Songkran going ahead, amid restrictions, there is a lot of background activity which suggest the authorities are getting ready for a surge of new infections at the end of the Songkran break, officially this Thursday (but in reality, next Sunday at the end of the weekend when most people who travelled home will return for a resumption of work).

The Thai lunar new year celebrations – Songkran – are the largest mass movement of Thais each year, a source for a huge leap in road deaths and accidents. And, this year, a potential super-spreader event.

Quietly, at least 3,000 extra beds have been prepared in 10 field hospitals around Bangkok. The government has also confirmed that additional field hospitals are being set up in other potential ‘hot zones’, including Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi and Hua Hin. Some of them were set up last year, and since closed, and now being prepared for new positive infections.

One Thai person who had been in one of the field hospitals put together a check-list of things to take IF you end up as an invited ‘guest’ HERE.

The CCSA say they are looking for additional beds in hotels and previous state quarantine facilities (where repatriating Thais were housed for their free quarantine) to be used if needed.

This year’s Songkran had bad timing, coming just a week after a number of major clusters were identified around some of Bangkok’s popular nightlife areas in 3 key inner city districts. Even before Songkran these isolated clusters had already spread into the provinces. In the weekend before Songkran the government had already listed 37 provinces which had instigated some form of paperwork or restrictions for people who had been in any of the 3 Bangkok districts.

The government also leapt on the source of the new outbreaks – bars, clubs and entertainment venues – and promptly shut them down for at least 2 weeks. At this stage it looks likely that that ban will be extended beyond the 2 weeks and, depending on the extent of new infections following the Songkran holiday, additional restrictions will also be added.

Even today the Civil Aviation Authority published a number of new in-flight restrictions for passengers – another blow to the hard-hit domestic aviation sector.