More than 100 people feared dead in northern floodings

More than 100 people feared dead in northern floodings



More than 100 people were feared dead in flash floods which ravaged through many northern provinces Tuesday, officials said.

The disaster also injured over 200 victims.

Uttaradit, Sukhothai, Phrae and Lampang were now reeling in the face of the inundation, caused by heavy downpours over the past few days.

Of them, Uttaradit was the worst hit with seven deaths reported. Electricity in the province was cut due to rising floodwater, which already marooned as many as 1,000 train passengers on four trains heading northward.

The Nation

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[wowpow]

Bangkok Post, Wednesday 24th May by SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL

"Rescue and relief officials are working against the clock to help hundreds of thousands of people in Uttaradit, Phrae, Lampang, Nan and Sukhothai provinces still trapped by rising floodwaters and landslides which have so far claimed at least 23 lives.

Uttaradit had the highest death toll, with 15 confirmed dead and 47 missing. About 100 homes collapsed. Five were dead in Sukhothai's Si Satchanalai district and three in Phrae, caretaker Deputy Interior Minister Sermsak Pongpanich said yesterday. Many are feared missing. An official in the North told AP the death toll could reach 100.

Days of incessant rain triggered severe flash floods and landslides which struck early yesterday morning, damaging roads, railways and power lines. More rain is forecast. In hardest-hit Uttaradit, power supplies have been cut off in Muang and Laplae districts, which are submerged under up to four metres of water.
Chainarong Choeisuwan, 27, of Laplae district, said he was awoken at about 3am by the sound of a huge rock rolling down a nearby mountain. He fled for his life when he saw a torrent of water rushing towards him. ''I still don't know the fate of my parents or wife who were in the house... I was so shocked I fled without thinking,'' he said.

Rescuers aboard flat-bottomed boats were evacuating people in Muang, Laplae and Tha Pla districts to emergency shelters. Army helicopters were transporting military medical teams to areas inaccessible by boat and dropping the injured off at Uttaradit Songkro Foundation's convention centre as the provincial hospital was cut off by one-metre deep water.

At Uttaradit Hospital, where the 580 hospital beds were fully occupied, all 65 doctors were busy, while only half the hospital staff came to work by wading along submerged roads. The hospital continued to function with electricity generated on site, but food and drink for patients and staff was expected to run out today.

The Corrections Department sent three generators to the inundated Uttaradit prison to facilitate the transfer of all 700 inmates to Phitsanulok prison, said deputy director-general Pittaya Sangkanakin.

In neighbouring Phrae province, residents were evacuated to higher ground -as flash floods from mountains and swollen rivers inundated Muang, Den Chai and Wang Chin districts.
Mudslides smashed into tambons Chor Hae and Pa Daeng in Muang district.
Rescuers were travelling on foot for 25km to five villages at the foot of Song Kwae mountain. The fate of the villages was unknown.
The floods washed away houses in the -villages along with the bodies of Jaruayporn Kaewmani, 7, and her aunt Pin Kaewmani, 77.

For Waree Pinchai, 32, of Muang district, the nightmare began at about 2am yesterday when she heard what sounded like thunder that was followed by the sound of rattling pieces of wood. Then water rushed into her house which shook as if it was about to collapse. ''It was only thanks to a large jackfruit tree growing nearby, which blocked the onrushing wood, that the house did not fall down,'' she said.

Collapsed bridges and landslides blocked access to five villages while a helicopter could not be sent on rescue missions due to poor visibility.

Elsewhere, in Sukhothai province, the Third Region Army sent helicopters to transport the injured to hospital.

Meanwhile, the State Railway of Thailand has cancelled all north-bound trips."

Mudslides still pose a threat to the North

While search operations for the bodies of flood victims continue, flood-hit provinces in the North are still at risk of more mudslides and deluges.


Villagers living in low-lying areas of Mae Ramat, Tha Song Yang and Mae Sot districts in Tak have been ordered to move to avoid flash-floods, while those living in mountainous areas were ordered to stand by for evacuation in case of landslides.


The provincial relief operations office said movements of the earth's surface in the three districts were picked up by satellite in the morning. An evacuation order issued by a central coordination centre under the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry was received by local authorities in the evening.


A late weather forecast warned of more heavy rains in Sukhothai, especially in the low-lying Yom River basin and in Sri Samrong and Kong Krailat districts, which are already facing swollen rivers, for the next few days.


Sixty-two bodies of flood victims have been recovered so far while 53 people are still unaccounted for, according to an official count from the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.


The flooding has affected or displaced about 121,000 people from 39,000 households in the five affected provinces, including Phrae, Nan and Lampang.


The search for dead bodies was the slowest in Uttaradit's Tha Pla district, where 44 people have been reported missing. Assistant district chief Narongsak Sang-ngern said all the bodies might have been swept away to Sirikit Dam 30 kilometres downstream, judging from the course of water to the dam, and especially evidence left along the route.


Rescue workers are tracing the two-kilometre-wide channel and have come across many dead fowl and tens of dead water buffaloes along it.


"Also found were home appliances, with hundreds of refrigerators scattered around. But no bodies have been found, apart from the 10 we retrieved earlier," Narongsak said.


Maj-General Narongsak Phooaree, chief of the Uttaradit Provincial Military Precinct, said searches in Laplae district were going much better than those being conducted in Tha Pla.


"Laplae district was hit by logs, making bodies easier to be seen, but in Tha Pla, the water washed away everything and the following mud covered the water path," he said.


Floodwaters in Sukhothai have now inundated six districts while damaging tens of thousands of rai of farmland and disturbing about 3,000 households. A lower stretch of the Yom River is expected to well up today after the surge moves southwards.


Phornthip Jiannuch, a Muang Sukhothai district local, said she could only watch her house washed away by strong flood current after narrowly escaping from it. "I lost everything in it although I and my two daughters have survived," she added.


Many people whose houses surrounded by strong current have to let their property washed way in similar ways, after army engineers refused to dismantle and relocated their homes to safe areas at their request because of the operations were too risky for their personnel.

The Nation

[wowpow]

The number of people confirmed killed in northern floods rose to 73, the Interior Ministry announced Saturday.

Anucha Mokkhawes, director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said 63 people were found dead in Uttaradit, six in Sukhothai and four in Phrae.

He said 41 people were still missing - 39 in Uttaradit, one in Sukhothai and one in Prae.

He said the floods had affected 156,236 people from 41,960 families, and damaged 311 roads and 46 bridges.

The Nation