Army Takes The Plunge As Nakhon Si Thammarat Battles Floods

[webfact]

FLOOD IN THE SOUTH

Army takes the plunge as Nakhon Si Thammarat battles floods

The Nation

Nakhon Si Thammarat is still facing severe floods although the heavy downpours have stopped while Army engineers are undertaking a damage |survey in the two hardest-hit areas to prepare for recovery operations.

The bodies of two teenage boys, washed away by flash floods while travelling on a motorcycle in Muang district on Monday, were found yesterday, in addition to the body of a nine-year-old girl who drowned in Yala.

Army helicopters were patrolling over Nop Phitham district and its tambon Krung Ching, where a large number of residents have been isolated, after many roads and a bridge were washed away by flood water. A military bridge is being erected to transport heavy machinery needed for road repairs in the flooded areas.

Flood victims are being cared for by Army medics and personnel, while local commanders said the bridge should be in use by tomorrow when more supplies would be brought in to affected residents along with Army machinery.

In Ron Phiboon district, a hill in tambon Hin Tok caved in, blocking access to a village and a school, trapping an estimated 1,000 residents. Long cracks had been seen on Khao Wang hill but the heavy rains led to the mud and rocks sliding down. The access had been regularly used by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn when she visited the school.

More than 70 tourists, stuck at the Tha Ha waterfall in Lan Ska, have been rescued and are now residing at a resort free of charge courtesy the provincial authorities, Governor Wiroj Jirarangsan said.

Damrong Phidej, the director-general of the Department of Natural Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said frequent mudslides or landslides in the South had been caused by widespread deforestation and illegal rubber plantations in sloping areas.

"There are about 200,000 rai of illegal rubber plantations in restricted areas," he said, adding that these were financed by business people and corrupt politicians, and a new department survey on the practice was under way to verify the areas encroached.

Of 23 districts in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 14 have been declared disaster zones with some 124,000 people in 290 villages affected, 3,000 others evacuated, and about 120 roads and 30 bridges damaged.

In Songkhla, most schools in Hat Yai district remained closed due to the floods.

A flood-damage report in Chumphon estimated a loss of Bt50 million in property damage, while about 67,000 people from 20,000 families, 395 roads and 18 bridges have been inundated or damaged.

In Surat Thani, the flood situation is easing and everything should return to normal by tomorrow, provincial governor Theerayuth Iamtrakool said, after a trip to survey flood damage. Two people previously reported missing have been found alive while one person is still unaccounted for after he was seen washed away by tidal waves in Tha Chana district.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she would visit the flood-hit provinces in the South after the budget debate ends tomorrow.

-- The Nation 2012-01-05

[anterian]

I am in Thailand, my son is in the Philippines, not sure which of us is safer from the forces of nature. Filipino disasters seem to be more violent but Thai ones last longer.