At 15:00 on February the 16th Pattaya once again was pelted with heavy showers of rain for about two hours which caused the roads all over town to flood.
The roads in East Pattaya, such as Kaho Talo and Khao Noi were turned into rivers which flowed down onto sukhumvit road and added to the problems there.
Traffic in Soi Nernplabwan and Soi Siam Country Club also ground to a standstill as the water made it dangerous to get around.
The railway road that acts as a bypass was also affected and a good few sections of Sukhumvit were almost impassable especially the low lying area near the Highway Department between central and south Pattaya.
North Pattaya Road was about 50cm-1 meter deep
Many small soi’s were flooded with the water have no means escape and, as ever many households and businesses were struggling to save their belongings.
There was little police presence and drivers of cars and motorbikes were literally taking their lives in their hands trying to get home. Many parents were picking their children up from school at this time and had to make the choice to either sit it out until the rain stopped or drive through several feet of dirty water unsure of what was lurking underneath.
Parents taking their kids home from school stuglle through the floods .
Down on beach road the area was awash with tourists amazed that a city could flood as quickly as this and yet again it proved that the 3 new drains that had been installed and the water pumps at a cost of 193 million baht, were completely inadequate to deal with a downpour such as this.
In addition to the flooding, many houses were without electricity for up to 8 hours and as the water finally receded huge pot holes were left in the roads which will no doubt be filled in and patched in the normal manner, until the next rainfall where all the money spent will be washed away again.
Sukumvit Road became an ocean itself and traffic was frozen for at least 1 hour.
Residents are now at the end of their tether with the lack of support from City Hall, who have not managed to deal with this issue for the last 10 years and are nowhere to be seen when people need their help.
Yet the planning department continue to allow new projects to be built, with little regard as to how will the City’s drainage system cope with even more concrete which continues to reduce the natural flow of rainwater
