Pabuk Tropical Storm in Southern Thailand... financially horrible timing.

It's always a pain when some sort of natural disaster or storm occurs but in a country like this one, it is particularly hurtful when it occurs during the "peak season" for tourism - which is right now.

I do know that around where I am living very little has happened yet. The power only went out once, which surprised me since on an average day when it is sunny the power goes out at least once. However, unlike other times this was accompanied with an explosion, presumable an issue with a transformer (the electrical component, not the robots in disguise.)

However, of the other coast they have seen a bit more in the way of problems.

This image is from Nakhon Si Thammarat which according to what I have heard was the worst hit. Only one person has died and it is not clear if this was directly related to the storm. Any loss of life is a bad thing but I'm happy that they prepared this time and cut off all travel to and from the islands because there have been some seriously high seas created by this. Which brings me to my main point about writing all of this.

The areas in the south, especially the islands on the East Coast, as well as Krabi, and Phuket on the west, depend heavily on tourism for the population's well-being. Numbers were already down this year and now because of this these areas are seeing cancellations (which is completely acceptable seeing as how they can't get there) and of course we have the people who are already on the islands that are not going to be spending money on diving, snorkeling, boat trips etc because it isn't allowed and even if it was it would be horrible and dangerous.

If this were to happen in say June, it wouldn't be as big of a deal but right now we are in what is known as "peak season." During peak season most every accommodation is fully-booked, and restaurants and tour operators stay very busy and this results in lots of people having seasonal jobs whose salary is very dependent on a little thing called "service charge." It annoys me when this is on my bill but I understand why it is there.

Staff look forward to this time of year because the thousands of people who are all paying 5-15% service charge (i don't know how they determine that) adds up to a big boost in what is normally a very small monthly base salary.

So while I am happy the government stepped in and prevented any sort of catastrophic sinking of a passenger ship it is still a bit disappointing that all the people who work in tourism are going to be going without something they have most likely been looking forward to for many months. It is also important to note that many of the tourists have been planning their trips during the peak season (which coincidentally is the most expensive time of year) only to have it squashed.

There is plenty more fun to have after the storm passes because the rain will continue to fall long after the eye has moved away and that is where the problems for many communities just begin. Most places do not have the drainage systems in place to handle this and we can expect at least some flooding. All we can do at this point is cross our fingers and hope for the best.

UPDATE: I just read that the one death was related to the storm and it was from a fishing trawler that capsized in strong winds. I don't know if they ignored the warnings or not.