🌊 The Biblical Flood Just Got More Biblical ⚠️ Damage & Dangers Everywhere 🪨
Thunder, lightning, rains, downed power lines, falling rocks, and potholes the size of motorcycles.....welcome to Steung Kach, Cambodia.
That Was/Is The Swimming Pool 🌀
The rain hasn't stopped for more than a month, and now everywhere basically anywhere you walk the earth feels like quicksand under your feet. Although not technically our property, the natural swimming pool created by a vortex of two creeks colliding is now a churning vortex of diarrhea-colored rage.
I am thankful our place is not out the outside bend of any sharp turns in the river. Right before the river enters our property is the hard right turn where the swimming pool is, and luckily we are on the inside of this turn in the river, because the momentum of the river is mostly on the opposite riverbank.
Downright Terrifying 😨
Even though things look pretty bad, we haven't lost nearly as much land as those downstream from our property where the river meanders in many directions, creating a bit of a flood real estate lottery. Our favorite hammock hut that overlooks the swimming hole is now beyond repair, but most of the structure is still there. The big leaning tree which supports most of the hut with its roots has been dead a long time.
I'd really like to cut the tree down before it falls, this could at least leave the root system in the hillside, and that would help a lot with preventing any collapses. For now it's just too dangerous, already there has been a mini landslide that sent a mass of bamboo pressing against the roof. I got on the very sketchy hillside to cut the bamboo and take the weight off the roof, and 12 hours later that hillside fell into the hut. The poor hut has also been stabbed with a speeding tree that destroyed most of the floor, but is also now a free gift if we can winch it up the hill.
Highway Apocalypse ⚠️
The @kidsisters just want to go to school, and are a bit unaware of how dangerous these conditions are. There was a 48-hour period of rain that felt particularly violent, and as I've grown in a mix of Tornado Alley in the USA and the Rocky Mountains, I've got a sixth sense for feeling when things are gonna be bad. There are so many house-sized boulders perched high above the roadside, and all this erosion has shifted them loose, really scary yo'!
I reluctantly took them to school, and all along the way there massive pieces of the road missing, giant potholes, surprise man-sized rocks in the middle of the road, and our neighbor guy that usually takes them to school on his way to work has more or less quit his job because of the weather. I now spend about 3-4 hours in the tuk-tuk each day, 8+ hours of ASEAN Hive work, and then it's a miracle if I can make time for a post from my personal profile, cooking, homeschooling the girls, or basically anything that's not ASEAN Hive or driving.
Note I documented the road conditions in reverse because I was in a hurry to get the kids to school. On the way back home I pulled over and took all the shots of the damage. It got worse and worse the closer I got to home. These times and weather are extreme. I miss engagement with my fellow Hivers, and I keep begging my wife to learn more about Hive so I can have some time for other pursuits than sleeping at my desk, but for now it doesn't seem appealing.
Water Is Powerful 💪
The roadside ditches are absolutely destroyed, and there are countless places that look just like this missing chunk in the above photo. It's going to take a long time to repair this damage, but it's very clear that this kind of weather is not normal.
This scary passage had to be documented, only a few minutes from home, it was the first omen I encountered on the way to school. The pole isn't suspending an electric line, but it's dangerous regardless.
Bad News For The Neighbor 🪨
I previously mentioned our property not being on an outside bend of the river, well our worst river fear happened to our neighbor's place which happens to be on the outside of this bend. A massive slide went all the way up the hill to the foundation of his house. If it can be saved, it will take a lot time because such a massive chunk is missing. The owner of this place runs an excavator company, but it would probably cost more in diesel than his house is worth to pile up the earth again.
The whole hillside is still unstable there, and also the owner happens to be out of town on a jobsite. The guy's got plenty of money and machines, and this house doesn't represent financial means very well, so I hope this is only a minor setback for him, he's a really nice guy, and of the few neighbors that seems genuinely interested in me.
Our Place 🛖
Our first hammock hut has been stabbed by some trees, but it's high enough and semi-protected by my partially finished rock-piling effort that I've been chipping away at since we moved in. It will need to be eventually disassembled, but it's probably gonna be safe for use for many months to come if necessary.
After returning to check out the swimming pool vortex, I noticed there was now an island in the middle of the creek and that massive chunk of land was missing on both sides. There is a lot of bamboo to harvest, so I hope the river level drops soon and I can haul some of it across to our side.
More Furniture & A Curry 🍛
I decided to move a sitting bed that we were using at the highway shack to inside our house. I had assumed it would be a good addition to the kitchen area, and it's turned out to be a convenient food prep area.
Now that it's easier to cook, it's easier to make special food more often. The wife made a lovely curry today, and even Monkey-B ate a copious amount of veggies.
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Even your food looks wet (sorry, I had to make a joke, can't help it).
Man, it seems to get more and more extreme, also - as mentioned before - it's the polar opposite of the weather here ( extreme dry heat ). What happened to that thing called balance?
Sending you good vibes!
Wet food is the best food, no doubt. Sad news, but the day I took photos of the road collapse, apparently there were three people that drowned the previous night at that location while trying to cross in a motorbike. The creek enters a small forest there before joining the main river, and their motorbike was found in the woods just out of sight, and two of three bodies recovered. It took a full two days before anybody knew the people were missing, and they weren't visible from the road, very spooky. I remember the night well, it was the most violent rain in the past two months.
Wow, that's a said story, indeed, meanwhile ( vulnerable ) people out here are dying of heart attacks, due to extreme heat and dehydration. It's about to get somewhat cooler though, after tomorrow. I'll cross my fingers for the weather to improve in Cambodia too.
There are signs of sunshine in the near future here, can't wait for a change.
Sunshine coming your way, right now.
WeI've had enough of it ;<)I am sorry, saddened and saddened to read and see what happened to your place of residence, and I am a little relieved to know that you are all right.
floods and strong winds are something that is very scary, but we can't do much because it's a provision from God, maybe behind all of that there is a great wisdom that God wants to show us all.
God encourages mankind to be friendly and take good care of nature, not to do illegal logging and cutting down trees carelessly on the banks of the river, always to do good.
but sometimes some people ignore it, which causes us who are good friends with nature also experience things that we don't want as a result of people who don't want to take care of nature properly.
I was also a bit traumatized by seeing the big water and strong winds, because in 2004 we were hit by a big flood in the form of a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people, I keep reminding myself when I see the flood.
I pray and hope that your family will always be healthy and happy always in the protection of the almighty God.
The power of nature is very visible and confronting here, and I am in awe at times. Yes the tsunami in your country was devastating, I remember seeing it on the news back then. I have never experienced a tsunami, but that is terror and destruction on such a large scale. Thank you for your prayers and thinking of us, may the almighty bless you abundantly brother.
what are you describing this time, or about the picture you show,, it's really scary,, water he is one of the most powerful creations of god, if water is running or flowing no one can stop it,, let alone be picked up you are now raining so long and hard,,
I remind you very often, my friend @justinparke, that where you live, it is very prone to landslides, actually, what we don't want doesn't have to happen, we are just wary of things we don't want...
but....... I smiled a little when you mentioned...
if you have a sixth sense,,, hehehe,,,, it's a miracle, is it true,,,,????
if that's true it means we are the same,,,,, hehehe,,,,,
Haha, yeah I think men have something in our DNA that makes always alert for dangers. Even in the middle of night a strange sound from the forest or highway will wake me, guess that's the inner caveman still alive. The good news from this is that it looks like our land is somewhat secure, because this was the most extreme flood anyone has ever seen and yet we did okay compared to our neighbors. The water is down now and the river is totally different now, all the boulder is new places and the path of the river has changed locations too.
Hopefully things don't happen that we don't want. And hopefully everything can be resolved as soon as possible
Supposedly this monsoon will pass in another couple of days, and I am more than ready to see the sun again.
Hectic situation there friend. Sending you strength and warmth from the south coast of Africa.
Thank you my friend, crazy weather for sure. I hope you're not having public water shortage issues like in J-burg, that would make life very difficult.
Those are some SCARY pics! For a while I've been wondering, reading your last few posts, how normal this rainy season is for that region. This makes it abundantly clear: it's not normal at all. But then you even said so yourself.
Let's hope the rain stops soon, so you can address the damages, and hopefully prepare for the next deluge. Stay strong!
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The river claimed three lives the same evening I took these pics, at the crossing where the road was washed away. Nobody knew they were missing until two days had passed, but their motorbike was underwater not far from the road. Apparently they got washed into the floodwater or perhaps accidentally left the road and landed in the floodwater. Needless to say this is way, way, out of the norm, but as we've only lived here for a few months, it's certainly our normal now. If next year's monsoon is more gentle than this, I'll believe it when I see it, now back to piling rocks again.......
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Finally looks like the weather is starting to let up a bit.
I think you should plant some trees that have strong root that can prevent from erosion? What do you think of Banyan tree? I think it has strong root when it has grown up.
Eventually we want to plant several kinds of trees, but right now the soil is not good enough, and if we plant the trees in good soil the rain will destroy them in a few days. We are thinking of doing bamboo at first to prevent erosion because it will grow quickly, then when the bamboo is established we will follow with different kinds of trees.
Dear @justinparke, sorry to jump in a bit off topic but may I ask you to support the HiveSQL proposal?
It lost its funding recently and your help would be much appreciated to keep the HiveSQL service free for the Hive community.
You can do it on Peakd, Ecency, Hive.blog or using HiveSigner.
Thank you for your support!
I feel sad when I read and see the photos that you show in this post, how scary the conditions in the area where you live now are. The rain that fell continuously for almost 1 month, could have caused a catastrophic flood. Oh God..I hope that won't happen.
Btw..how about the response and responsibility of the local government for the various damages that occurred in the area where you live, such as potholes, fallen power poles, to your neighbors' houses which almost collapsed due to erosion..?
I hope you and your family are fine and always in the protection of God, my friend 🙏🙏
The local government here is almost non-existent because we are in a wildlife sanctuary. The only form of government is the military base that employs 90% of the men that live in this village. Even though it's not their duty, they play the role of police and rescue, solving disputes, etc. But because they are not legally responsible for any of these things, they don't have to help if they don't want to.
The neighbor's house will be hard to fix because it is so high and far from the river, and this means it will take a lot of rocks and boulders to make it strong again.
this is a mirror of life that we live in a world that must preserve nature because danger often comes unexpectedly, we humans are only able to accept the fact that we do not have the power to withstand all the calamities of life. This is a rebuke from the Almighty for us humans, it is a very alarming incident by the eyes of the world.
I agree, and the might of nature humbles and reminds us how small we are in the scale of life.
I really don't know how to comfort you in this situation, the initial photographs were really scary. Sometimes nature is getting too aggressive. Just a few days ago we faced a very dire situation. All I can say is that everything will be fine, so stay safe.
Well no doubt your country is the king of flooding in the world, although not the same kind of rapid flash floods we have here in the mountains. Stay safe my friend, I know high ground is sometimes hard to find there.
OMG, so that's like 45-minutes or 1 hour to your daughters' school...? Then you go back home, and then repeat the round-trip each afternoon? That is brutal, to be on-the-road 3 or 4 hours each day, especially via tuk-tuk or motorbike. 😳 Does the trip take so long because of the distance, due to the top-speed of the tuk-tuk, or a little of both? What is the top-speed of the tuk-tuk on a good road, anyway...?
I have actually been wondering about distances there in Cambodia. Whenever I read blogs about any other part of the world, I always enjoy trying to "follow along" on a map. (I love maps!)
You've mentioned PRÂMAÔY a few times, and that was easy to find on the map. You & Srey-Pov have both mentioned the girls going to school in THMOR DA, which I found to be a little southeast of PRÂMAÔY, near the border with Thailand. But it took a very long time (and looking at several different maps!) to find a place called STEUNG KACH, which appears to be a little north of the town of KRONG PAILIN. However, that STEUNG KACH appears to be about a 3.5-hour drive from THMOR DA. So, maybe there's two places named STEUNG KACH or two places named THMOR DA...? Kinda like how every state in the US has a city named "Greenville?" 😂 So, I am a still a little lost as to where things are over there and how far it is between places. You can see the places I found on the following map, and maybe tell me where I have made a mistake!
You answered your question before I could get to it, haha. I once searched Steung Kach via English letters, and also got nothing from this area. Google Maps requires you to request a listing, and that's beyond the computer know-how of folks around here. I don't even think there is a single guesthouse or hotel registered on Booking.com or any of the major sites, even in the little Thmor Da town near the border. My wife was able to find a listing for the military base here searching with Khmer letters, but otherwise we'll probably be the first listing here.
Now that you're familiar with the map, we chose Pramaoy to start because it was the last town with a proper market and options to study English, albeit a bit simple. We wanted to buy land in this part of the country, and we intended to explore to the north, south, east, and west of Pramaoy on the weekends.
We had already traveled south and found the land was too expensive and tourism already a bit normal in the area. To the east were no mountains, to the north was a really poor quality road, but beautiful land. We were left with heading west on Highway 55 from Pramaoy to the Thai border, all the way scoping for little pieces of land, and believe or not this was the most expensive area, especially Thmor Da on the border. We lucked out by stopping in this village and asking around, we were just about to give up and leave Pramaoy for another basecamp somewhere else in the country.
Oh, by the way, "Steung" means small river or creek, and "Kach" means well, had to ask my wife, and the way she explained it to me in Khmer makes me think it's like the English word "snap," but not snap your fingers, snap like "snap a twig." So, although I've never thought about how to translate the name to English, I guess we can call this place "Snap(ped) Creek." 🤔
The way the river is "snapping" away at your bank, maybe "Erosion Creek" would be a better translation 😐
Indeed, all the erosion prevention I've done for the last few months prevented damage, but it also needs to be redone from scratch.
some of the pictures that friends show are very scary with flood events like that.I hope you friends in Cambodia who are experiencing flooding, I pray for you that you are all well. and hopefully the water will recede quickly so that in the future we can still carry out activities smoothly.
What about the local government, whether the aid has been sent to flood-affected areas.
There is usually no aid in situations like this here in Cambodia, but in rare cases in the urban areas, if the story becomes popular on Facebook, sometimes the government or a rich person will help, but not out of generosity or care, only for the social media likes. Today there was a bit of sunshine, so it looks like things are improving.
Darn it. The whole damn story board of apocalypse! By now I saw you're still posting, assume everything is ok except I noticed one of the post saying non of the hut survived.
Oh that bowl of curry looks just like what I can pour everything in within 5 minutes type of food!