Prayuth tells estate residents to get ready for evacuation

Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha yesterday warned residents in the Ladkrabang and Bangchan industrial estates to prepare for evacuation.
His warning came as a C-130 military plane was used yesterday to evacuate 12 patients from two hospitals in flood-risk areas in Bangkok to hospitals in the East.
All the patients were admitted to Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital in Khan Na Yao district and Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital in Sai Mai district. The aircraft transported them from Wing 6 in Don Mueang to U-tapao International Airport. The patients from Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital were admitted to Prapokklao Chantaburi Hospital in Chanthaburi while others from Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital were moved to Queen Sirikit Hospital in Chon Buri, said Air Vice Marshal Theeraphap Senawong, director of Institute of Aviation Medicine.
“This is the first time that patients with serious condition have been evacuated such a long distance. We’ll consider day by day if more patients should be evacuated by plane,” he said.
Meanwhile, the emergency medical service centre at Don Muang has so far transported 690 patients, 49 of them by helicopter, 61 by plane, 231 by car and 349 by boat since October 19.
Prayuth said if water levels in Rangsit Canal are stable for two days, the industrial estates will probably not be inundated. He would deploy soldiers on a mission to protect the industrial estates from floods.
However, he could not guarantee that floods would not hit them. He warned the people there to prepare for evacuation, saying they should contact their community leaders to get information about where to move or where they could get relief bags and necessities if they don’t want to evacuate.
The Government Complex on Chaeng Wattana Road is preparing to take in more evacuees. He said 883 evacuees had registered to stay there although it had provided space for only 800 people, Deputy Finance Minister Viroon Tejapaibul said.
The Lawyers Council of Thailand’s subcommittee on stateless people and alien workers’ human rights claimed that the Government Complex had refused to provide assistance to alien workers.
Surapong Kongchantuk, chairman of the sub-committee, said some shelters refused to provide spaces to migrant workers, as they were worried whether they would be violating the law, including those at Government Complex.
The statement said offering help and shelter to alien workers was not considered a violation of Immigration Act BE 2522. It called on the shelters to help them even if they had lost their personal legal documents in the floods.
The panel called on the government and its Flood Relief Operations Centre to take care of those flood-affected workers.
Evacuees who want to search for nearby shelters in Bangkok can call 1555 or 0-2248-5115 round the clock or visit http://dds.bangkok.go.th.
Thammasat University yesterday did not move 3,800 evacuees at its shelter in Rangsit campus yesterday even though some parts of the campus were under 30-50 centimetres flood waters as the shelter was not flooded, Prinya Thewanaruemitkul, its deputy president said.