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The world's supply of hard disk drives has fallen dramatically after devastating floods in Thailand killed over 800 people, and brought parts of the country's economy to a standstill. But while flood waters recede slowly, they are still receding. The country's energy ministry today projected a spike in energy demand, as its industry will need more energy than normal to regain its healthy growth rate from before November.

Western Digital is already back in production in Bang Pa-In, once the summer palace of Thailand's kings. But until the country's industry is completely back on its feet, the price of hard drives worldwide may remain unseasonably high. Amazon price tracking data for a 2 TB WD Caviar SATA III drive that sold for as low as $134.99 last September, sells for $210.88 today after peaking at $269.99 around Black Friday.

The floods across Thailand earlier this month have been devastating for many people there, and our hearts go out to them. (I have visited twice and will surely go back some day.) One place that these conditions have had an immediate worldwide impact is on hard drive prices. A Western Digital factory outside of Bangkok is responsible for the components that are used in nearly 60% of their hard drives, and the factory had been sitting in a flood-created moat up to five feet deep, as can be seen from this picture care of Scan Computers and posted here.