While some reports marked that the downpour at Patong Police Station lasted only 15 minutes, rain in nearby areas lasted just short of two hours, according to an official report of the damage done.
Water started rising, stirring concern among police officers that the police station would flood yet again.
Only a handful of years ago Patong Police Station gained an unfavourable reputation nationwide as the police station that floods every time it rains.
However, this time, the police station was not inundated, but vehicles were left stranded in the car park by the rising floodwater.
Other areas nearby, including the intersection in front of Patong Hospital, located diagonally across the intersection from the police station, also flooded, as did the street in front of Patong Municipality offices on Rachaphatanusorn Rd.
Meanwhile, Kamala Police deployed officers to regulate traffic over the bridge on the Kamala-Patong Rd (at km.16+570 on Route 4030) after subsidence saw a section of the bridge fall off.
The subsidence was blamed on heavy runoff from the Khao Khuan Yak hill nearby. Civil works engineers have been tasked with inspecting the damage and making repairs.
Traffic across the bride has slowed, but the four lanes remain open, police noted.
Later yesterday afternoon, after the downpour, Patong Mayor Chalermsak Maneesri arrived in person at the drain works under construction near the wastewater plant at the southern end of Patong.
Patong Municipality in its report said that the visit was to “visit the construction area of the flood relief project in Patong area.”
The water level in the drains had risen dramatically, with that section of waterway fed by the Pak Bang Canal, which snakes through the back of Patong, passing Patong Municipality offices, Patong Police Station and Patong Hospital en route.
Mayor Chalermsak met with Suvit Phansaengiam, of the Phuket Provincial Office of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, “to expedite the contractor to complete the project to be completed as soon as possible to alleviate the suffering of the people from the flood problem,” said the report.