Troops called out as floods hit South

As downpour-triggered floods ravaged the South yesterday, the Fourth Army Region set up 17 disaster-relief centres covering 14 provinces.

Regional commander Lt-General Pichet Visaijon said extra officers had been brought in to evacuate victims and clear blocked roads.

Nakhon Si Thammarat declared 17 out of 23 districts emergency areas after floods caused damage worth more than Bt210 million.

Provincial governor Panu Uthairat said 159,700 residents were affected, with seven deaths and more than 200,000 rai of farmland, shrimp farms and fish ponds damaged along with other infrastructure.

The Rajaprajanugroh Foundation will deliver 2,000 relief bags in Muang and Tha Sala districts today.

Surat Thani province declared Vibhavadi, Khiri Ratthanikhom, Tha Chang, Kanchanadit, Phunphin, Chaiya and Don Sak districts disaster zones with 50-70 centimetres of flood water in low-lying areas and many country roads impassable. Tha Chang woman Uem Phudjaem, 94, slipped from her house ladder into floodwater and drowned yesterday.

Soldiers with heavy machinery were dispatched to clear an impassable seven-kilometre road to hardest-hit Tambon Takuk Nue for trucks to deliver food and drinking water.

The Rajaprajanugroh Foundation delivered 500 relief bags to Vibhavadi and another 500 to Khiri Ratthanikhom. Following Thursday night's flash flood in Vibhavadi, which damaged six homes in Modkhan village, local resident Navee Saeju said no deaths or injuries had occurred because many people had gone to a funeral at Bang Mor Pavillion, some two kilometres away.

In Songkhla, downpours flooded homes in Muang district's Koh Yor intersection area to 50cm, and the old Songkhla-Hat Yai Road was impassable for small vehicles. The flood caused a four-kilometre traffic jam.

Heavy rain since Friday night flooded Muang Songkhla's Khao Roop Chang Market, forcing many vendors to sell their goods beside the Songkhla-Na Thavee Road on higher ground.

With three-metre-high waves eating away parts of Chalathat Beach Road on the Laem Samila peninsula, Nakhon Songkhla Municipality mayor Uthit Chuchuay instructed officials to sandbag the coast and had pumps installed around the city to drain water into Songkhla Lake.

The Southern (East Coast) Meteorological Centre forecast rainfall nearly all over the region and heavy downpours in some places. Residents in endangered areas of Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phattalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were told to brace for flash floods and forest floods in 1-2 days.

In Trang, Disaster Prevention and Mitigation officials rushed to inspect water sources after the province was hit by heavy rainfall and the meteorological office warned of forest floods and landslides in areas along the Ban That mountains in Trang, Phattalung and Nakhon Si Thammarat.

They found most reservoirs could take more water and the Trang and Palian rivers were 2-3 metres below their banks, but caution was advised.