Tourists marooned on Thai islands hunkered down Friday as Tropical Storm Pabuk carved its way towards the kingdom, forcing airports and ferries to close and bringing downpours and massive sea swells.
Boats were recalled to shore across the Gulf of Thailand, while two key airports -- Koh Samui and Nakhon Si Thammarat -- were shut until Saturday, leaving tourists who remain on islands now cut off from the mainland.
Meteorologists said Pabuk, the first tropical storm in decades to strike during the peak holiday season, had intensifed Friday morning and was due to make landfall imminently.
'Ten thousand tourists are still on Koh Phangan,' said Krikkrai Songthanee, district chief of the island which neighbours Samui and is famed for its full-moon parties.
'But I talked to foreigners last night and they are not scared, they understand the situation,' he told AFP.
The eye of the storm is forecast to pass over Nakhon Si Thammarat, sparing the tourist islands to the north from a direct hit.
'But all tourist islands in the Gulf of Thailand including Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao will be affected because Pabuk is huge,' said Phuwieng Prakhammintara, head of the Thai Meteorological Department.
As it churns through the sea, Pabuk has gathered pace with 75-kilometre-an-hour (45 mile) winds stirring huge waves of up to five metres high (16 feet).
Social media videos showed oil rigs being battered by waves, and tankers navigating terrifying walls of water.
With rains lashing the entire south, the Meteorological Department warned coastal communities to expect 'inshore surges' as winds whip up the sea.
- Empty shops, beaches -
A fisherman in Pattani province, near the Malaysia border, died after waves smashed into his boat before dawn on Friday as it returned to dock. Another crew member is missing.
They join the only other confirmed fatality from Pabuk so far -- a Russian man who drowned off Koh Samui on Wednesday after ignoring warnings not to go into the sea.
Pabuk, which means giant catfish in Lao, is forecast to pass over the narrow neck of land between the Gulf of Thailand and into the Andaman Sea -- home to the tourist resorts of Phuket and the Similan National Park, a diving paradise.
Tens of thousands of tourists have already fled the southern zone.
'It's very empty... the beaches are deserted,' Pui Suriwan, a Koh Phangan resident, told AFP.
On neighbouring Koh Tao, one of Southeast Asia's most popular dive spots, tourists and residents were bracing for a torrid 24 hours ahead.
'The weather is turning worse as the winds pick up, I´ve finished buying supplies... there's no gas anywhere on the island, 7/11 is already running out of things,' a Spanish dive instructor told AFP.
'We're ready to bunker down.'
Holidaymakers on Koh Samui took to Twitter to shares videos of waves licking the steps to beachside bungalows as the wind speeds picked up.
The storm is bad news for Thailand's lucrative peak holiday season.
The economy is heavily reliant on tourism, with latest figures for 2017 showing the kingdom made nearly $60 billion from the sector.
Tourism was hit hard by a boat accident in Phuket in July last year, when scores of Chinese tourists died as their overcrowded boat capsized in heavy seas.
Visitor numbers from China, Thailand's biggest market, slumped after the accident. Still, around 40 million people are expected to visit Thailand this year.
In 1989 Typhoon Gay, the last major weather system to strike the region at this time of year, claimed hundreds of lives.
A man inspects storm damage to his house in southern Thailand
Stranded Chinese tourists waiting for information at Surat Thani airport after tour operators suspended boats to resort islands due to tropical storm Pabuk.
burs-apj/fox/sls
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/category/the-sun-world/
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/tourists-hunker-down-as-storm-pabuk-hurtles-towards/
News Pictures Tourists hunker down as Storm Pabuk hurtles towards...
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/04/06/wire-8117416-1546584725-161_634x421.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий