Floods subsiding but residents want more aid

Some 100 families in Hat Yai district's Tambon Patong and Khlong Hoi Khong district's Tambon Thung Lan said that their homes have been submerged over the past five days and that they have had to wade through floods to get to work or shop for food.

MR Somlarb Kitiyakorn, secretary of HRH Princess Somsavali, yesterday delivered 1,500 relief bags from the princess and her daughter HRH Princess Bajra Kitiyabha and also opened a free kitchen in Hat Yai's Tambon Kwuan Lang Municipality.

In Narathiwat, though floods in 13 districts are slowly subsiding, 1,980 people living on the banks of the Sungai Kolok, Bang Nara and Sai Buri rivers in Sungai Kolok, Waeng, Tak Bai and Rusoh districts were still under 60 to 80centimetres of water. The Narathiwat Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office announced that the second round of flooding has affected 63,369 people, destroyed 19 homes and caused damages worth Bt44.7 million.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan visited Tambon Ban Manangkayi in Narathiwat's Muang district yesterday to provide 1,000 affected residents with essential goods and give some financial assistance to children who lost their parents to the floods.

Education Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said his office was surveying damages at 314 schools that were forced to temporarily close down due to floods. He also said the ministry was accepting donations of clothing to keep students in the North and Northeast warm and had placed an order with vocational colleges to manufacture 20,000 blankets for distribution to schools.

In related news, Bua Polprasert, a 67yearold resident at Tambon Bungkhla Chaiyaphum's Muang district froze to death yesterday, bringing the number of people who have died in the province from the drop in temperatures to three.