Thai football coach previously trapped in cave finds himself stuck on roof due to Typhoon Yagi floods

Thai football coach stuck on roof with family during Typhoon Yagi

Ekkapol Chantawong, a football coach in Thailand, seemingly has a ‘knack’ of finding himself in predicaments whenever a storm hits.

In 2018, the assistant football coach and 12 boys from his football team were trapped in a cave following heavy rainfall.

The sudden rain, which abnormally came before the monsoon season, caused a flood and forced Ekkapol to lead the team deeper into the cave to escape.

They ended up over four kilometres deep into the cave, where they were eventually found alive by British divers 10 days into their ordeal.

Cave divers eventually pulled off a highly dangerous rescue operation and extracted all 13 alive from the cave.

Coach stuck on roof due to Typhoon Yagi flash floods

When Typhoon Yagi blew through Thailand recently, Ekkapol was once more caught in a tough predicament.

Flash floods swept through his home in northern Thailand on Tuesday (10 Sept), according to AFP.

To escape the rising waters, Ekkapol and his family climbed onto the roof of their house. With the flood still going strong, Ekkapol had to spend the night up there as cold rain poured down.

On Monday Wednesday (11 Sept) morning, Ekkapol posted a video on Instagram from his roof.

Muddy water swept through his town, almost as if a river had spawned.

The family couldn’t leave their house due to the strong currents.

Despite the difficult situation, Ekkapol spoke calmly and was all smiles in the video.

He told AFP that he had learned from his experience in the flooded cave — to keep calm despite being afraid.

Ekkapol said he had to focus on solving the problems when the flash flood happened, just like he did in Tham Luang cave.

However, he said there was “more of a way out” of the newer predicament he found himself in as compared to the cave.

Stuck on roof for 2 nights in a row

The former assistant football coach laughed when asked if he could imagine getting stuck in such a situation a third time.

“It’s hard to say. We can’t say what will be, but I hope I don’t have to go up on the roof again tonight.”

Unfortunately, his Instagram video at 1.22am on 12 Sept showed him on the roof once more as heavy rain poured down and floodwaters surged by.

Thankfully, videos shared after 7am on 12 Sep showed that the flood depth had subsided to below waist height.

As such, Ekkapol and other townsfolk could leave their houses again, wading through the brown water.

Also read: Shirtless uncle in China does Tai Chi outdoors against Super Typhoon Yagi, gets blown away

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Featured image adapted from @eakapol_jantawong on Instagram and Thai Navy Seals via BBC on YouTube.