• 
• 

Published on August 22, 2007

Some 300 residents in Phang Nga's Muang district had to be evacuated while 500 houses in Surat Thani's Phanom district were damaged.

About 2,000 households in Phang Nga's Muang, Takua Pa, Khura Buri, Thai Muang and Kapong districts were affected by flooding and landslides blocked many roads.

The districts were declared disaster zones after being hit by "the worst floods in 60 years", according to provincial governor Winai Buapradit.

Winai said officials sent initial aid to affected residents. Phang Nga Red Cross Society president Ratree Buapradit said her office sent 500 relief bags to each flood-hit district.

Earlier yesterday, Tham Nam Phud Tambon Administration Organisation president Don Pattanapichai and mitigation officials waded through one-metre-deep floodwater to help evacuate 300 residents to a shelter near the City Hall after some villagers were already moved there on Monday night.

Days of continuous rainfall and forest runoffs from Nang Hong, Kratha Kwam and Toy mountain ranges caused Klong Phang Nga to inundate people's homes.

Resident Siwa Intharak, 39, said he had never seen such flooding in 10 years of living in Tham Nam Phud.

In Takua Pa, three schools were closed while 800 families - about 2,000 people - were moved to tents on high ground in Tambon Khok Kian. District chief Phuwanart Ekkarat said this was the worst flood in 10 years.

In Surat Thani, a flash flood from the Khao Sok National Park hit six nearby villages in Phanom district at 5am yesterday, inundating 500 homes and damaging a bridge to the park.

Ninety students from Phanom Suksa School who had planned to camp in the national park for three days were reported safe and left for home.

Khaosok National Park director Chaiyatat Boonphu-phuntanti said two bridges and asphalt roads in the park were damaged by floodwater. The cost of damage was estimated at Bt2 million. The 86th to 87th kilometre stretch of Phang Nga-Surat Thani Road also was impassable due to 50cm-deep water, while a landslide blocked the 104th to 105th kilometre stretch and forced vehicles to use only one lane.

Surat Thani Governor Niwat Sawaskaew and officials distributed supplies to flood victims and gave them moral support. Niwat later declared the flooded area around the national park a disaster zone.

The Meteorological Depart-ment  said the southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand would continue to unleash heavy rain in many parts of the country.

It said 80 per cent of the area on the western coast would be hit by rain compared with 60 per cent on the eastern coast, while 60 per cent of Bangkok could expect rain.