kampot flood

kampot flood
Originally uploaded by ubikwity.

We went up to the rapids to visit the river, the next day the river came to visit us... The river was still 5 feet below its banks at sundown, although it was running very fast - I tried to call Hugh to ask him what he thought of the current but his phone wasn't ringing ( he had lost it in the river). We were awoken at 5 the next morning when our landlady called to tell us the river was flooding. Sure enough, in the grey, rainy morning we could see that the river was 4 feet over its bank and lapping at our door. The street in front of our house was a fast moving current of deep water. Within a few minutes the power was out. We tried to get sand bags and plastic to keep the rising water at bay but no one was selling. Our neighbors had enough dirt and plastic to keep the water out for a little while before they had to put all their furniture on their car (which they jacked up), they have only a single story house so they asked us to store some of their valuables in our second story. We moved most of the furniture upstairs, balanced the fridge on some chairs, put bricks under the large tables and cabinet. Makeshift boats were floating by at this point. Several large trees fell into the street and three large fishing boats dropped anchor right at our front door. The entire town was under water. I waded around taking pictures. Hugh's entire place (the Bodhi Villa) was underwater - he had evacuated his parents and guests by boat. The roads were all closed so we had to put off the trip to the embassy.Please see photos - more later