Published on December 18, 2005

The monsoon rains continue to wreak havoc in six “disaster-zone” provinces in the South, affecting hundreds of thousands of villagers.

Songkhla’s Hat Yai district braced for the worst flooding as the U-Tapao Canal, swollen with flood water from Sadao and Na Mom districts upstream, seemed about to break its banks. Hat Yai municipality yesterday flew red flags ordering emergency evacuation as the canal rose some 10 centimetres per hour. Some parts of the canal in Hat Yai’s tambon Pathong and Sadao’s tambon Phang La have already overflowed and inundated nearby homes, sending villagers fleeing to higher ground. Sadao reservoir overflowed and inundated houses and 12 roads in the district. Local authorities insisted the dam was strong enough not to rupture as feared.

The present high tide on Songkhla Lake will hamper drainage to sea, said Governor Somporn Chaibangyang.

In nearby Sathing Phra district nine villages were under 1.5 metres of water and some 4,000 families in three tambons were evacuated to higher ground.

The scenario, resembling the severe floods of 2000, prompted some Malaysian tourists to cancel hotel rooms in Hat Yai this week, according to the president of the Hat Yai Hoteliers’ Association, Somchai Pimthanapunporn, who said hotels had water pumps, food and fuel. Residents were stockpiling food and leaving cars at parking lots in malls, hotels and government offices.

Hat Yai Hospital has moved patients to the second floor and laid in medicines, food and fuel.

Interior Minister ACM Kongsak Wantana yesterday declared Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phattalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Narathiwat and Trang disaster zones and prepared to dispatch relief worth some Bt100 million.

In neighbouring Yala, residents in six flood-prone areas in Yaha district were ordered to evacuate, while a child in Krong Pinang district and two other persons in Bannang Sata district were reported missing.

Nakhon Si Thammarat province, which has witnessed three floods in one month, still has many areas under water, in places two metres deep.

Residents in Pak Phanang district urged the government to act, while Tambon Hulong Administrative Organisation plans to raise roads 50 centimetres above flood level next year.

The body of shipwrecked sailor Arim Himma, 39, who drowned in a storm off Pak Phangnang on Friday, was washed ashore yesterday morning, and that of Chob Jitniyom, 71, of Phra Phrome subdistrict was found in the evening.

With two- to four-metre seas predicted, Surat Thani Governor Wijit Wichaisarn yesterday ordered small craft to shore and instructed district chiefs to be prepared for flooding.

In Trang 30,000 people are affected by floods, and many roads remain submerged. The Trang-Phattalung Road over Mount Pubpha in the Banthat Range was impassable yesterday owing to subsidence.

Huay Yot district has paid Bt30,000 to the family of four-year-old Nattawut and two-year-old Ketsuda Chaiyasit, siblings who drowned during the heavy rains this week.

In Phattalung 410 villages remain submerged, affecting 62,942 people. Two have died, and one is still missing after having been washed away.

Phattalung’s Pa Payom Reservoir is at 74 per cent of capacity, and Pa Bon Reservoir is full.

In Satun, flash-floods yesterday inundated five districts and one subdistrict.

Prince of Songkhla University lecturer Traipob Phongsuwan and Meteorological Department official Phuwiang Praminkham said global warming and the December 26 tsunami might be to blame for the non-stop monsoon rains.

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