High waves hit Thailand on eve of tsunami anniversary

Waves measuring up to 5 metres high hit Thailand's Chumphon province Sunday, inundating beach-front properties but claiming no victims, residents said. The cause of the high waves was not immediately known.
Monday marks the seventh anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, that killed more than 5,300 people on Thailand's Andaman Sea coast. Nearly half the victims of the tsunami were tourists vacationing in popular beach resorts such as Phuket, Phi Phi and Phangnga.
"The water just reached my house but didn't flood it," said Sutin Wannabovorn, a Chumporn resident whose house is 40 metres from the beach. "Some other properties were inundated, but there were no reports of deaths," he said in a telephone interview. Thailand has just recovered from its worst floods in five decades, which claimed up to 760 dead and caused billions of dollars in damages to the central plains and outlying suburbs of Bangkok during the months of October and November. Chumphon is a low-key beach resort, popular mostly among Thais, on the westerm coast of southern Thailand.