Nan River bursts flood levee to inundate downtown community
A community on the Nan River bank in the downtown of the northern province was inundated on Saturday morning when the river burst a flood levee.
Nan Governor Phaisarn Wimolrat and Muang Nan Municipality Mayor Surapol Thiansutr visited the Ban Suan Tan community shortly after the river burst its flood levee at 6.40am and the water from the bloated river gushed into the community, flooding it.
The community was quickly under 30 centimetre-high water, causing problems for small vehicles.
Officials have since said that water has started seeping into other communities along the river.
Surapol said the water level in the river has surpassed the crisis level to now reach 8.4 metres – the same level as during the 2006 “great flood”.
But Surapol said the damage this year could be less than in 2006, because flood levees have subsequently been built along the river banks and local residents have been warned in advance of possible flooding.
Surapol said the officials are rushing to plug the holes and breaks on the levees and would try to pump out floodwaters to minimise the damage.
At 7.10am, worker were using sandbags to build flood levees around Nan Provincial Hospital.
At 7.50am, hospital officials closed the bridge near the hospital.