Pontefract man caught up in Thailand tropical storm

Paul Bains, who lives in New Zealand but was born in Pontefract, was on holiday in Thailand when the storm hit the region on Friday.

Despite predictions that the storm would be the worst to hit the region in 30 years, Mr Bains reported that the weather had “not been too bad.”

Speaking from his villa on Koh Samui, Thailand’s second largest island, Mr Bains said: “We have some tree debris, but on the whole it’s not been too bad.

“A bit of wind, a bit of rain and some bigger waves, but nothing that’s really that scary or that we haven’t seen before.

“Relatively speaking, yes it’s stormy weather but it’s not anything scary bad that I haven’t seen before in this part of the world when I’ve been travelling.”

On Friday morning, the Foreign Office issued an urgent warning, advising against “all but essential travel to areas within the provinces on the Thai-Malaysia border”.

Mr Bains was due to leave the island on Friday afternoon, but was forced to reschedule his flight to Monday as the storm arrived.

He shared a number of videos as the storm approached the island, but said the weather had not been overly intimidating.

He said: “It’s been perfectly fine walking between buildings and stuff.

“Would I got for a drive? Probably not, but on the whole nothing too scary that we’ve experienced so far.

“When you travel, these are the kind of things that happen. Sometimes you get snowed in, sometimes you have a storm like this which means a few flights get cancelled.

“It’s a bit of an inconvenience that we can’t fly home today, and we can’t fly until Monday.

“But we’ll live with that, we’ll watch a couple of Harry Potter DVD’s, have a couple of beers.”

Winds peaked at around 40mph as Storm Pabuk passed over Thailand, leaving thousands of people without electricity.

But the main tourist islands, including Koh Samui, where Mr Bains was based, were spared the worst of the weather.