BANGKOK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Unlike the tsunami-devastated areas in Thailand's Phuket and Krabi provinces, Khao Lak in Phang Nga province may never be resurrected.

Repairs, if undertaken at all, could take at least five years, and even then Khao Lak may not resemble its former self, Bangkok newspaper The Nation reported Friday.

Barely known by tourists three years ago, the high-end destination was completely leveled by the Dec. 26 tsunamis. The 10,000 luxury hotel rooms along the 13-mile beach were worth more than $500 million. All of them were either completely destroyed or heavily damaged by the powerful tsunamis.

Mark Heather, general manager of La Flora Khao Lak Hotel and Resort, watched his elegant property destroyed a day after its grand opening Dec. 25. He said he did not know how long it would take to rebuild the hotel because its structure was badly damaged.

Another Khao Lak hotel owner said the physical damage on the beach was so severe that it would be almost impossible to rebuild the area to its original form.

The Khao Lak beach suffered the worst damage in Thailand from the tsunamis.