By Chutma Sidasathian and Alan Morison
Monday, June 14, 2010
Today's Updating Report
AN AMERICAN woman has drowned in the surf at Karon on the first day of her holiday, restoring the beach's reputation as a killer during the monsoon season on Phuket.
Another tourist is in intensive care at Bangkok Hospital Phuket. A spate of rescues took place around the same time at three different Phuket beaches on Saturday.
The American woman, aged 20, hired surf boards with her boyfriend at Karon despite a warning from a lifeguard that the sea was unsafe.
Phuketwan has been told a nurse, a tourist on the beach, helped to perform cardio resuscitation, but the effort was in vain and the woman died in Patong Hospital.
second tourist, a Korean man, was pulled from the water in an incident at Kata beach. Two other swimmers, Thai teenagers Chaiyaphum Boonrasri, 16, and Knitaani Hursuachet, 15, were taken to hospitals after being rescued from the surf at Nai Harn.
All of the incidents came around 5pm on Saturday. A planetary alignment may have helped to strengthen undersea ''rips,'' which were particularly bad at Phuket's beaches at low tide.
Several drownings occurred at Karon last monsoon season. As a testimony to Karon's treachery, Lonely Planet listed the Phuket beach among the Top 10 stretches of sand in the world for families.
Even with red flags placed along beaches, Thais and expat tourists continue to try to enjoy their ''summer holidays'' on Phuket by swimming in the sea, despite the dangers.
Phuketwan was at Karon last year and witnessed a lifeguard struggling to warn tourists who insisted on swimming at the spot where a Russian tourist had drowned just hours earlier.
Lifesaving chief Prathayut ''Nut'' Cheryon said today that Saturday's low tide had brought with it an exceptionally strong rip.
''People really shouldn't go in the water when conditions are so dangerous,'' he said.
If drownings continue, authorities will have no choice except to ban swimming at some beaches during the monsoon season.
A US disaster and safety expert recently recommended adding a warning about the potential for tsunamis to the Phuket promotional videos shown to tourists as their flights descend towards Phuket International Airport.
Another 10 seconds on the video would also alert them all to the dangers of swimming at Phuket's beaches during the monsoon season.
A lifeguard struggles to get swimmers to leave the water at Karon after a drowning
Photo by phuketwan.com/file