High winds have also caused considerable damage and disruption, blowing off garage roofs in Devon and west Wales, uprootingtrees and bringing down power lines.
Builders have been uprooting and moving big trees since at least the 1920s, when William Randolph Hearst had cypresses trucked in from Paso Robles, Calif.
Authorities gave 20th Century Fox permission to landscape Maya Bay, on Phi Phi Island by uprooting vegetation, levelling it and planting palm trees, which were removed after filming 12 months ago.