200 sites in deep South face landslide risks
200 sites in deep South face landslide risks; Rail services resume
HAT YAI: — Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday warned southern province residents to be on alert as additional heavy rain in more than 200 areas in five provinces are now more at-risk to landslide.
Mr. Abhisit said in his weekly television and radio address that flooding in Surat Thani province had now receded, but southerners should remain alert as the weather department had warned that heavy rains would continue for at least one more day in the region.
Government disaster response workers are watching the continuing storm pattern.
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation officials are monitoring the flood situation in the region round-the-clock and that sufficient assistance had been sent to the region, Mr Abhisit said.
In Songkhla province bordering Malaysia, more than 4,000 families were affected after their homes were flooded when sluice gates collapsed under heavy water pressure and which overflowed two major canals.
Disaster officials in Songkhla warned that more than 200 areas in five provinces– Songkhla, Satun, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat–could encounter landslides as heavy downpours continued to hit the region.
Passenger train services from Hat Yai district to Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, however, resumed Sunday after floodwater which covered one stretch of the rail line in a Songkhla village receded.
Although rain in Narathiwat had stopped for two days, but floodwater in some areas remained as high as 2.20 metres while fish breeders suffered heavy losses with hundred thousand farmed fish having perished.
A fish raiser in Narathiwat said fish died after officials released floodwater in the sluice gates to the sea and urged concerned government agencies to urgently provide assistance to the raisers because most had earlier become bankrupt and took out loans from outside the financial system.
Meanwhile, the bodies of eight persons who were killed in a landslide in a Narathiwat village November 6 had been recovered and sent to their families for religious ceremonies.
FLOODS IN SOUTH
Six killed as Floods wreak havoc in seven provinces
Flooding is hitting the deep South following several days of heavy rains, with six people drowning and hundreds of thousands of villagers in seven provinces affected.
In hardest-hit Yala, where all six deaths occurred, survival kits from Their Majesties the Kings and Queens have been distributed to those affected. There are more than 33,000 villagers in Yala affected.
Nirand Phetthae, head of a tambon administrative organisation, said those given the kits were badly affected, with some of them having to stay on their home roofs due to high flood levels.
“Those villagers regard very highly of the kits, as a token which represents Their Majesties’ care for them,” he added.
Provincial governor Krissada Bunraj said he and the villagers highly appreciated His Majesty’s concern for them. “It shows how gracious His Majesty has been to his people, he has helped his people even though he is still in his bed, receiving hospital treatments,” he added.
In Songkhla, 15 districts out of all 16 have been declared under the state of disaster emergency, after more than 150,000 in more than 48,000 households had been affected, and more than 5,200 evacuated. Around 16,000 rai of farmland and 348 roads had been inundated. A total flood-caused damage has been estimated at Bt180 million in Songkhla alone.
The train services have continued although long sections of rail tracks had been flooded with in low level in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and in Songkhla’s Chana district
Security officials in Pattani have been instructed to also provide emergency assistance to the locals in case of flash flood while still on high alert for possible insurgent attacks. Provincial security chief Maj General Jeerasak Chomprasob said said flood-water from Yala would possibly travel to Pattani within the nex few days, citing his own experiences.
In Phatthalung, the highest flood-water level reported was at 1.7 metres in four tambon in Muang district. People are using boats for transport and running out of drinking water and food supplies.
In Trang, the flood-water level had subsided after several days of no rains, but flood-water from neighbouring Nakhon Si Thammarat could swell the Train river and inundate residential areas by the river’s side, said disaster relief officials.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking in his weekly television address, said there were now 10 southern provinces hit by flooding, and that the government would take care of those affected and would assign a team of senior officials to travel to the region next week.
A weather forecast released yesterday has predicted lighter rains in the lower South but warned those living in low-lying areas or by river banks against flood flood or quick swelling of rivers, those living in mountainous areas should also brace for land or mudslides.