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The Great Flood of 2000

It was not a thunderous storm, just a constant steady rainfall. No winds, no dark clouds, no anger to it just rain. It had been raining all day. We knew there was some flooding around the school so when we went to bed that night the four of us teachers that were sharing a townhouse, sort of hoped that the next morning we would find ourselves unable to get to school. Be careful of what you wish for.

We woke up early to check out the situation, if it were still raining, how far the waters had risen. Still raining, but from our local viewpoint still no fury to the storm. We didn't know that this simple steady rain was so wide spread. It wasn't just raining in Hatyai. It was raining over the entire province, slow and steady without anger but with a whole lot of power

Wrathful typhoons are common here. We were used to gusting winds, dark clouds, torrential downpours that ended up in flash flooding usually up to your ankles in minutes. But with these storms, all traffic stops everyone pulls over to the sides of the road, chats with their wet comrades in roadside soup shops, and waits the 20 or 30 minutes until the rain stops. The roads dry up magically as if the Earth were a hungry sponge and within minutes life goes back to norm.

The electric had gone out that morning but our electric never was reliable. Our house was not flooded. So we dressed and began to get ready for our day, all debating whether or not the schools would be open. I had the day off but the other teachers got dressed and started out down the street. Our Thai neighbors, started shaking their heads at us. On our end of the short dead end street we lived on, the houses were dry. Half a block away the water was knee deep. Peter, Shivani and Welma walked to the main road about one block and thai deep before turning back after a good look at a plateau of water as far as the eye could see.

Still raining, steady, wet but not intimidating. Hey cool, we thought, this looks like fun. We all trod out in the river that was our road. Some big diesel busses were still careening up and down the main road more having fun than picking up passengers, making huge wakes that splashed up against us. The rain was not annoying so we walked around a bit, assessing the situation all the while looking for snakes in the water. The water was muddy and the walking was dangerous as Hatyai has big open sewer ditches on the sides of the roads where falling in would mean going above your head in this water. The water only got deeper the farther we got from home so about 3 blocks was the farthest we got.

Still raining, we thought about our house and start dredging our way home. A co-worker showed up with a black garbage bag strewn over his shoulder and muddy water marks chest high on his white shirt. We immediately asked if he fell down in the mud. His experience shocked us.

The house he was renting was near a waterway. During the night the water in his neighborhood had already flooded the streets. About midnight the floodwater began to bubble out of the drain in his downstairs bathroom. His house had begun flooding. He lived alone and started moving all that he could carry to the second floor of his townhouse. He moved his motorcycle up to his front porch. He spent all night moving things up. By morning the water was chest high in his house. He packed up his ID, some money and a change of clothes in the garbage bag he strung over his shoulder and started out of his house. He was a swimmer so chest high water did not bother him but after he left the break that his house provided he realized the current running by in front of his house was very dangerous! He had to struggle with all of his might to swim-walk to the thoughtful rope that one of the neighbors had tied to a telephone pole at the top of the street to assist the people at the bottom end of the street in escaping. With the aid of the rope he pulled himself up to the waist high and less dangerous top end of the street before realizing he was truly abandoning his house. He could not go back there. He set out early about 5:30 in the morning and walked, trudging, sloshing for over 2 hours, normally a 30 minute walk, before he made it to us. He was very happy to have company.

We all went back to our dry house. Played some cards, sat on the balcony and watched the rain. Now there wasn't any telephone, electric or water service. Thoughtful Welma said we should go to the shop across the street and buy fresh drinking water. I'll always thank Welma for that for when we did not have palatable food left to eat we did have drinking water.

A few more hours and the water began creeping towards our house. A long black line of scorpions looked like soldiers trying to fight off the flood walking backwards into our house facing the raising floodwaters. We got out the brooms and smack, smack killed 10 scorpions and 2 giant centipedes that were trying to enter our house to escape the flood. Shivani got stung by a scorpion in the battle but luckily the sting was not full-on potent and it just bothered her like a bee sting.

We had to start moving things upstairs, refrigerator, books, bookshelves, there was a downstairs bed, tables, TV. A lot of stuff, all quickly shuffled upstairs into the two small bedrooms that were upstairs.

Now there were eight of us and a dog in the house, 5 foreign teachers, my 3 year old daughter, her Thai nanny and the nanny's boyfriend who showed up in the morning as well. All of us crammed into the upstairs of the townhouse with all the furniture from downstairs now upstairs with us. We played cards, we ate all the food we knew would go bad without a fridge. We made a few more forays out into the rain, played Yatzee, entertained Willow the 3 year old, looked at the fish swimming in the living room and swatted at mosquitoes. We left the upstairs door open because of the intense heat and humidity, it allowed us to smile and wave to our neighbors who were also stuck in the upstairs of their houses, it gave us light inside and gave some sense of openness. The first day was fun. We listened to the radio, to no avail as non of us understood enough Thai, we listend to tapes, we chatted, gathered up our candles for the evening and then thought about sleeping arrangements.

Hmmm, 2 couples but 3 men and 5 women. Two bedrooms a bathroom and a hallway. We let the occupants of the bedrooms keep their privacy. The 5 intruders slept in the hallway. During the night, a stray dog found its way into our garage area and started to howl. Proclaiming it was sure to be drown, Welma took the dog into her room.

The next morning, still raining. We all stink about now. Toilet ettiquite had to be reestablished as the water would not go down the toilet. My 3 year old daughter's training potty had become the new communal toilet. After use, each person was to wade through the water and rinse it out the back door.
Still raining, noon-time. Now we are bored. It was a nice steady heavy rain so I took a bucket outside and let it fill up with rain water. I immersed myself in the floodwater fully dressed in my shorts and t-shirt and scrubbed with a bar of soap. We had been stressed and busy the day before. We all reeked. I scrubbed and scrubbed, washed my hair and then rinsed my body down with the fresh rainwater. ALL the neighbors watched with shocked faces. I felt great! I looked up and waved at them all watching from their second story balconies. About 20 minutes later the entire street was out front taking a bath!

One neighbor boy brought us some cigarettes and a couple of beers. We found out that there was a bit of looting going on in stores that had been abandoned. He invited us out for some "fun" but we turned him down imagining headlines in the newspaper about foreigners looting and photos of us. We invited him in for a game of UNO. One round and he was bored. He came back later with some Coca-cola for us. We didn't ask where it came from as we were all short on money and had run out of foreign food. We were down to eating plain rice and eggs that the neighbors were kind enough to cook up for us. We had to leave the good drinking water for Willow to drink with her formula.

Nighttime and still raining. Two of us started menstruating. There were no shops to buy sanitary napkins and none in the house. Willow had stopped wearing diapers during the day and only wore them at night but I still had a good supply of diapers so they doubled as sanitary napkins as well.

Day three and still raining, we are bored of each other's company. Welma is complaining that her bones hurt. I think it is depression. We walk around in the flood a bit. There are boats going up and down the street now with some relief effort offering bottled water. We each take a bottle. Without this water we would have run out. We see a helicopter land at the nearby hospital and find out that they are airlifting stranded travelers out so they can leave the area. We all worry what our families back home might be reading in the newspapers. We want to tell them we are O.K. Eating miserable low grade rice and eggs but O.K. We trudge to the hospital to see what is going on. They are giving out packaged biscuits, we gobble them down.

Welma is complaining. I wished she would just be quiet were are all miserable, stinky and aching for sanitation.

The fourth day. Peter woke up with a scarlet red face. We were not sure if it was from sunburn from walking around outside so much yesterday or what. He was sore and slightly feverish. Shivani tended to him dedicatedly. Welma had retracted to her room. By mid-day she could not take it anymore. THE RAIN STOPPED! Welma said she was REALLY sick. She was wringing her hands and beating her body. We arranged for her to go to the hospital.

At the hospital they looked at her and then brushed her off. They stated she may have Dengue fever but just told her to go home. She was miserable.

Day 5. Peter had a high fever, his skin was pealing off of his face and hands. Shivani put Ms. Nightengale to shame with her diligence.

The rains stopped. Over the next day the flood waters slowly washed away. There was MUD, MUD and MUD everywhere. Everyone was busy scrubbing the walls, lamenting over ruined cars and motorcycles and moving furniture. Still there was no water, electric or telephone so we were pretty miserable.

Peter and Welma were more miserable though. They were suffering undiagnosed and unaided from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. None of us knew the danger they were in and both Welma and Peter tried their best to pitch in and clean up.

A few days later, Hatyai still was not open for business. The whole city put up an awful smell. The banks were not open, ATM machines were off line. We had no money to contact our families, buy food or have any fun.

Doug returned to his house to find out that his motorcycle had been completely immersed in water. His house had gotten about eyeball deep in water from the mud stains on the walls. If he had waited any longer to get out he probably could not have. A few days later he came down with Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever as well.

We heard stories of over 100 people drowning or being electrocuted. The municipality did not shut down the power grids before the water got up to the power sockets in some houses.

The schools were to be shut down for two weeks. The entire first floor of most schools were totaled, Including pianos, books and everything else.

Many people fell sick with diseases carried by rats. Leptospirosis would leave people with a fever that could induced coma within a day. Dengue Fever was common but the hospitals refused to admit that there was a problem.

South-Thai.com / Prince of Siam Stories / Weird and Wild Thailand / Fireworks / Hatyai and Songkla

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