STOP PRESS
My wife left home at 4 p.m. today on a 3 km journey to pick up her daughter from school. However, due to the heavy rains and high winds she did not arrive home until after 6 p.m. The sudden thunderstorm and high winds after she left home for school wreaked havoc in Surin this afternoon. The main drag past the schools, the one with the new lights in the center reservation, may have been the epi-center from what my wife tells me. Many of the light fittings cascaded down to the road during the storm today, broken glass everywhere. My eldest daughter was finishing her class in Sirindhorn at 4 p.m. and was trapped by the sudden tempest that arrived soon after. Lots of windows were blown out of the school buildings, glass everywhere, and children were huddled in the sheltered spaces in their rooms to avoid the horizontal rain coming through the now open windows. Apparently, Anubarnsurin, next door to Sirindhorn, also bore the brunt of the storm. They had been getting ready to open their doors for the start of the new school year next Tuesday. Lots of windows blown in and some roofing gone too. Don't know how much damage was done in this afternoon's storm but I suspect it is pretty widespread. A big clean up operation will be required to get the schools ready for open doors next Tuesday.
