Trouble in Paradise! Preparing for Cylone Pabuk

Today started like any other. Michele woke at the usual time while Nicholas and I slept in a little longer. I was laying half asleep and you know how you sometimes hear your surroundings but don’t really comprehend them? Well that was happening to me and through the foggy, dreamy haze I heard Michele’s voice infiltrate my present state, “Something’s up.” I sat up and blinked away sleep. “The people next door just warned me about a storm, I guess people are evacuating the island.” That sure woke me up! Mom went downstairs to wake up Justin and we spent the next hour on multiple weather apps, collecting as much info as we could. We learned that a tropical storm had evolved into a tropical cyclone and is headed right for our tiny island. Michele and Justin discussed if we should stay or leave and we decided to stay, here’s why....

• Ferries might be overcrowded with people leaving because of the storm on top of normal post New Years exodus
• We didn’t want to be caught out on the ocean when 12-16 foot swells were in the forecast
• We are near enough to the beach that we’ll probably get some flooding but have the second story of a cement structure available 
• Justin got 10 candles for Christmas and power outages are a perfect excuse to burn them before our time on Koh Panghnan is up
• We have a gas powered stove so we can still prepare food

Now that we had decided to stay we wanted to be prepared for the storm to come. Our pantry was almost empty and we were completely out of fresh drinking water so Justin and I spent the morning running errands. First we took the motorbike down the road to a reverse osmosis facility to get lots of water. Next we drove down to Thong Sala (town with biggest shopping varieties and best deals) to buy food as well as flashlights. Beans, pasta, peanuts, produce, sardines and more went into our giant trekking backpacks to be carted home.

As we shopped we conversed other western travelers about Pabuk. They were at the grocery stores like us, and expressed their concerns about loose debris like sheet metal and wood just laying around. They also mentioned that the Thai people of the island seemed like they didn’t care. We noticed this too! Our land lady said this is nothing and dismissed it with a wave a hand. This was analogues to reactions of other resort owners, the boy where we buy water, the man at the gas pump and the lady who works the fruit stand. Maybe class 4-5 tropical cyclones are annual? Well it this turned out not to be the case when we learned this is predicted to be the worst storm in 56 years! We puzzled over what could be behind the lack of preparation. The culture which tends to be less stressful than ours or maybe we are over reacting? Everyone knows it is coming, but it will be interesting to see how the cyclone effects the island.

Kite surfers are enjoying the wind and waves! 

We will continue to watch the weather, the worst of it is forecasted to reach our island Friday and Saturday. If you don’t hear from us in the few days it will because we don’t have WiFi or electricity. We will continue to keep in touch until them.

We have taken proper precautions and will stay inside to school, read, and play cards. Too bad, we were just starting to enjoy the sunshine!