Largs restaurant owner 'truly devastated' after Storm Boelo flooding destroys kitchen

The owner of a Thai restaurant in Largs has said he is “truly devastated” after its kitchen was ravaged by floods, leaving it closed “for the foreseeable future”. Water poured through the floor into the kitchen of Tha-Tien-Thai, dislodging appliances , shelving and food stocks, leaving the restaurant “completely waterlogged”. Many shops and businesses in Largs were flooded last night after Storm Boelo ravaged the west coast of Scotland, creating high waves which breached the sea wall in the town.

Gift shop Geraldo’s was also badly flooded, with videos showing fast-moving flood waters reaching up to the windows of the shop and other businesses on the town’s Main Street. Posting a video of the devastation to social media, Tha-Tien-Thai owner Tyson Puksaphak said there was “nothing left”, adding that he was “truly devastated”. Mr Puksaphak, who has owned the venue for two years, said it was the third time in a year his restaurant had suffered flood damage.

He said he had been alerted to the flooding at around 12.30am, when the alarm on the restaurant went off, sending a message to his phone. He alerted staff living in he accommodation upstairs, but they were unable to open the door until the water had receded. “I was at home in Ayr and I got the alarm,” he said. “I logged on to the CCTV I can watch on my phone and I could see water was rising outside the shop. Then I saw it was coming up through the floor into the kitchen.

It took five minutes for the water to rise up through the drain into the back of our kitchen. “I don’t know how long we will have to stay shut for and we don’t know if there will be more flooding today or tomorrow. I am taking some sandbags, we want to protect it from more flooding. We’ll keep the floor in the dining room dry for now and leave it for maybe a week, I don’t know.” He said his staff were undergoing a clean up operation at the restaurant, but said he believed some expensive appliances such as the fridge - and a new freezer which he installed on Friday - would have to be replaced.

He added: “In the kitchen, all of the appliances, the fridge-freezer, the dishwasher, have all been damaged, I have booked for the engineer to come out tomorrow morning, but I think we may need to throw them away.” The Largs community have offered to help Mr Puksaphak and other businesses affected by the flooding. Nikki Poro wrote on social media: “Oh guys, I’m so sorry. That is devastating, reach out to the community for any help you need.

I’m sure a lot of us will be there for you.” Siobhaun Mills, who runs the Copper Nut gift shop, said her son had been to the shop to assess the damage after seeing photographs of last night’s floods and had been relieved to find there had not ben serious damage. “It’s been awful,” she said. “Some of the other shops have been really badly affected, it’s just horrendous.” Luca Richards, who works at the Paddle Steamer pub, said his venue had also not been damaged, but that he had heard other businesses had been forced to close.

“When I was walking to work this morning, I was expecting to be wading through flood waters,” he said. “But the water had gone away very quickly. The waves are still extremely high this morning and it’s very, very windy, but there is no flooding. I’ve never seen anything as bad as this here before.”