So you moved to a place with little traffic, drove everywhere and noticed traffic increasing?
Yes, it happened over the next couple of years, I think because of the tsunami. I suspect if it weren't for that disaster Hua Hin would be much less developed even now.
I also built a home in the countryside south of town on a plot surrounded by farm/grazing/empty land. Within three years it was surrounded by big developments and what was a perfectly good sealed road was ruined forever by the developers. At the time I sold the house you needed a 4 wheel drive to get to it because the developers did not allow for drainage when they built their big walls and turned the street into a river during rainy season, which eventually caused it to wash out completely.
So I watched over development not only ruin the town, but ruin my own once peaceful neighborhood.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
Im no lover of the council but have to agree with b b. I live in samorpong and new duel carr. Is working well, as is the stretch of road at hin lek fai
My home city in the UK is actually a bit lower than the tidal river on which it lies, but - unless the water bursts its banks - which has happened - we don't suffer flooding anything like HuaHin does, despite being pretty much covered by concrete. Neither do we have huge storm drains.
As Frank rightly points out, mountains to the west of HuaHin certainly don't help the run off. But an ex expat who many of you will know once explained that the whole HH drainage system had been badly laid out. I guess more buildings won't do anything to change that at this stage, although more green space would help a little.
After the bad floods in the UK in 2007 was it? the authorities said they would regulate planning permission more carefully, including the building of large property extensions and paved areas, in order to try to maintain some green space in towns.
But I think the centre of HuaHIn was beyond redemption several years ago. At least it is now quite careful about building heights in the centre of town, although the first, and to date only, high rise there (Hilton) does occupy what was once a largely open space leading down to the beach.
In my opinion, last night's storm goes to prove how out of touch with real Hua Hin the OP is.
There are not many infrastructures anywhere that could have coped with the initial deluge, and flooding was inevitable. I've lived here 3.5 years now, but I've also talked to a few long stayers, and we're agreed, last night was the worst we've known here. However, driving around the city this morning, apart from a little mud on the roads, there was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had happened,
I still think the city guys are doing a great job sorting out our infrastructure. The biggest surprise to me was that not a single mountain collapsed last night .
Big Boy wrote:In my opinion, last night's storm goes to prove how out of touch with real Hua Hin the OP is.
There are not many infrastructures anywhere that could have coped with the initial deluge, and flooding was inevitable. I've lived here 3.5 years now, but I've also talked to a few long stayers, and we're agreed, last night was the worst we've known here. However, driving around the city this morning, apart from a little mud on the roads, there was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had happened,
I still think the city guys are doing a great job sorting out our infrastructure. The biggest surprise to me was that not a single mountain collapsed last night .
I am pleased about your last comment; living beneath a mountain/large hill I am glad there were no unfortunate landslides.
Saw the stones , gravel etc on the roads this morning, nothing unusual or overwhelming but if anybody had any flooding problems then sorry for that.
I've known HH for 23 years and lived here for the last 15 and couldn't agree more.
Also 23 years and entirely agree. It used to be a regular occurrence that Phetkhasem highway would be flooded for days at this time of year and impassable for ordinary cars south of town.
Big Boy wrote:There are not many infrastructures anywhere that could have coped with the initial deluge, and flooding was inevitable.
The fact is, Hua Hin's roads were clear of the flooding when we all woke up. If you look at other affected areas, they are still drying out several days later.
Like others I started living here over twenty years ago and there have always been floods when we get relatively short torrential downpours. The development of HH has just spread the problem most likely due to a reactive rather than proactive system. Houses get built, water supply eventually reaches them while more have been built which similarly have to wait for a good supply.
What has been pointed out is that by morning the majority of the water had drained. Sensational pictures of cars that managed to find their way into the drainage ditches while it is apparent in the background that the flooding is not that bad do not help. In the past we did not have the Internet or digital cameras that make the dissemination of information so easy so it did not get the coverage.
The local authorities will, unless there is a huge change in policies, always be playing catchup. I notice that part of the banking on the new Klong walkway could not cope with the other nights deluge. Is it a quality issue or failure to take into account how bad it can get in the design stage. Improvements are slow but they are making progress.
I've been in HH over 13 years. What short memories a lot of you guys have. This is nowhere near the worst of the floods. There have been numerous floods much worse than this. The recent underground drainage installed on 112 and Petcha plus the huge storm drains have improved the dissipation immensely. Before that a downpour of this nature took days to clear with the top of 112 being completely impassable except for high wheel trucks and SUV's.
Does nobody remember when a depression sat over Prachuab and Petchaburi for 2 weeks. If you lived on the only high ground on Takiap road you were completely cut off from both Takiap village and HH. Roads to Panburi closed as were the roads to the north. People using boats in the town. The army dispatching rubber dinghy's to rescue people off roofs where they had been stranded for a couple of days. Ta Yang completely closed. Prawn fishing on the roads between Cha-am and Puktien. (The price of prawns hit rock bottom at the markets)
Those times make this recent flood insignificant. Saturday morning, you wouldn't have known it had even rained the night before.
Things have improved.
The deluge was exceptional, in my 15 years in Thailand I have never experienced a downpour anything like it. I would like to see how well some of our western towns, cities would have coped...nowhere near as well I believe. For some, knocking HH is the norm but on this occasion HH proved it could handle exceptional weather conditions. Is everything perfect...NO but it's a good indication that things are improving. And that from that, as a part time resident of, the tail end of, soi 6 that does not see mains water for months on end.
The storm....credit where credit is due....the local authority didn't do a bad job but more work is needed.
"'The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." - Mark Twain
"The Over-Development of Hua Hin and the Consequences"
Well, Soi 102 has always been a flood risk area and there has been so much development there since 1999, the risk was always going to increase. It has taken until now, to put in a pump to alleviate the problem!!! Will it work? TIT who knows.
As to the "Consequences" well, the whole of Hua Hin is being concreted over and it ain't going to stop any time soon, but with the water supply and other problems, due to the lack of the correct infrastructure, maybe time to move on to pastures new.
DalmationDave said...
Well after seeing the pipe burst while sitting at Bobbys bar and the subsequent days of devastating damage to the foundations of the road and surrounding area it is very easy to understand why prospective buyers of the buildings on the south side of 102 would have wished to walk away.
Days later the conversations were that the hole was getting larger and subsidence must be having an impact on the integrity of the entrances to that building. The hole was right to the doorways of the building, one almost expected the building to disappear into that hole.
Well Dave My wife's mother sold one of those 4 story shop houses opposite the hole that you were talking about. It sold for almost for almost twice what she paid when new! It sold in 3 days from going on the market 2 weeks ago.
Sold to another Thai, so I don't think they were worried about any future flooding, do you?
However, the new pumping station just built, did affect the sales on the new building opposIte.
I've lost my mind and I am making no effort to find it.
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