Floods Hit North Thailand

[george]

Floods hit North, man struck dead by lightning

One man was killed and homes, possessions and farmland in the North and Northeast were damaged in flashfloods brought on by torrential rain yesterday.

Pitaya Boonsuk, 25, was killed by a bolt of lightning in Phichit while running home in the rain.

Downpours since 1.30am swamped the Srimala and Budsaba roads in the town with 30 centimetres of water, making them impassable. A school was also flooded, forcing it to close.

After a long day of assisting residents to move to higher ground, provincial police went home to find over 20 rooms at their official quar

ters submerged under 50cm of water and their personal belongings, including electrical appliances, ruined.

Many documents could be seen floating around the main police station.

In Mae Hong Son’s Pang Mapha district, 30 houses were swamped and a number of motorcycles, livestock and pets were swept away, police officer Weerasak Sirisith said. Officers helped villagers move their effects to a safer place.

No casualties were reported or damage estimates made.

Provincial weatherman Pisit Puangsuwan warned of more floods, with radar screens showing thick rain clouds and a depression straddling Mae Hong Son and other northern provinces.

In Kalasin’s Huay Mek district, the storm inundated Huay Mek Wittayakan School while over 200 students were in class at about 3pm.

Everyone managed to scramble to safety and teachers quickly propped up the threestorey building’s columns with thick wooden blocks, Governor Worasit Rojanapanich said. He ordered temporary repairs to the structure and promised to find funds to build a new school.

Students and teachers had to dig holes under the building to allow the floodwater to escape so that they could have a place to study during the rain.

The situation so far is that 1,000 rai in Huay Mek and Nong Kung Si districts are damaged, Worasit said.

Weatherman Kamphun Butraraj said tropical depression Chanthu was centred above Nong Khai and would soon be downgraded. This showed that many northeastern provinces could still expect severe cloudbursts. Kamphun warned lowlying residents to be on their guard for sudden floods.

In Phetchabun, the Pa Sak River rose relentlessly and burst its banks, inundating the town, Lom Sak, and Nong Phai districts and forcing over 1,000 families to move out in panic.

About 200 houses in the town, Ban Huay Pong and Wang Chomphu districts were under a metre of water.

Phetchabun police chief Jirayuth Wajanarat immediately dispatched dinghies to fetch stranded victims.

Many roads in Chon Daen district are awash and many villages are under two metres of water, he said.

A rescue team was sent in to evacuate victims. Nam Kor and Nam Chun villagers in Lom Sak are on full alert, preparing to load their property onto vehicles to escape the floods.

--The Nation 2004-06-16

[irelandais]

You know the saying it never rains but it pours.