Chiang Rai Latest To Face Flooding Crisis

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Chiang Rai latest to face flooding crisis

CHIANG RAI: -- After Chiang Mai and Lampang, now it’s Chiang Rai’s turn to face a flooding crisis.

More than 1,000 households along both banks of the Korn and Lao rivers in Muang district and Mae Lao sub-district were in distress after waters rose to one metre as a result of heavy rains the previous night.

Local officials were worried the situation could get worse with overflow from the Kok River and run-off from Chiang Mai’s Fang district.

The situation in Chiang Mai and Lampang has improved but some areas remain submerged in deep water. Authorities expect Chiang Mai to return to normal by tomorrow, assuming no more rain.

However, massive run-off from higher districts in Lampang was expected to hit Thoen district last night.

The weatherman said Chiang Mai would not accumulate any more water, as the rainfall in town last night was as little as 22 millimetres and no run-off has entered town since Friday. From now, the region should experience only seasonal monsoons, it added.

Sanit Phoosaengthong, chief of Chiang Rai’s Muang district, said the river had broken through a 100-metre stretch of the two-metre-high earthen dyke and swamped nearby residences, but most of them had already vacated for several days.

“The best we can do is prepare as many sandbags and pumps as possible,” he said.

In Lampang town, residents began cleaning the muddied parts of their houses. Some areas in five tambon of Chae Hoem district remained submerged. Three villages in Chae Hoem district were almost cut off by a mudslide on the main road.

Thoen district chief Suwit Lekkamhaeng said he had already warned people to evacuate as well as build a 10-kilometre-long earthen barrier as part of a set of measures to prepare for the flooding expected to hit his district last night.

In Chiang Mai, the most seriously affected area was Saraphee, which lies in the downstream outskirts of the city. The road along the railway tracks there bore the brunt of the flooding. The water in some villages was still chest-high yesterday.

Some 40 entertainment venues and restaurants said they would remain closed for a week until the town gets back on its feet.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra decided to skip his scheduled visit to Chiang Mai and sent his deputy Suwat Liptapanlop in his place to offer moral support to officials and volunteers battling the floods.

Management of all 25 river basins across the country will be revised to prevent serious flooding in the long term, Thaksin said. For his hometown of Chiang Mai, two measures will be considered - improving the carrying capacity of the Ping River and installing more water-level monitoring stations - particularly along major streams and rivers up the mountain - to make prediction more efficient.

“The early-warning system for such floods is very poor. It must be precise enough to forecast the expected intensity of the storm or depression,” the premier said.

Deputy Interior Minister Sermsak Pongpanit said all those whose properties were encroaching into the Ping River would face strict punishment. To widen the river, some private land should be sold by the state, he added.

At least three provinces in other regions were also reported suffering from the seasonal monsoon.

Gales in Amnat Charoen’s Chanuman district battered more than 50 houses in the area, causing one death and two serious cases of injury.

In Kanchanaburi, constant rainfall since early morning inundated Muang district under a metre of water and affected 100 families.

In Bangkok, strong winds swept over some areas in Nong Khaem district, immediately damaging 18 houses - 10 seriously.

A local said it was the strongest storm he had ever seen in 60 years, severe enough to make a laundry machine fly up into the air.

--The Nation 2005-10-02