Evacuees shifted to other shelters
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Flood evacuees sheltering at Thammasat University (TU) in Rangsit had to be shifted to other shelters or sent back home yesterday after floods swamped the campus.
The news came as Sombat Boonngamanong, president of the Mirror Foundation called for apartment and dormitory landlords not to demand a bond or guarantee from tenants – just collect monthly rental fees to help evacuees.
The foundation also called on the government to support the Tourism Authority and the Local Administration agency by offering home-stay places so evacuees have relaxing places to stay while their homes were flooded.
The Thammasat shelter had housed about 3,800 evacuees, but they had to be relocated after the Rangsit campus was also flooded. Some who live in Ayutthaya decided to go back home, while others were sent to Rajamangala Stadium or Adisorn Military Camp in Saraburi, TU deputy president Prinya Thaewanarumitkul said.
At press time, Prinya said he could not tell how many people remained. He said the shelter was able to take care of those still there. However, their stay may not be as convenient as it was prior to the flooding.
The university asked Bangkok Mass Transit Authority to provide 200 buses to transport them to new shelters.
Ramkhamhaeng University has contacted its students to ask them to do voluntary work and assist relocated evacuees at the National Stadium.
Meanwhile, 1,500 evacuees at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi’s shelter in Pathum Thani also had to be moved to a stadium in Lop Buri when floodwater from Rapeepat Canal broke a dyke and flooded the university.
Half the detainees at Thanyaburi Prison have been evacuated to prisons in Kamphaeng Phet, Phitsanulok and Tak as flood levels rose by 50-80 centimetres in front of the prison yesterday.
About 1,000 of a total 2,200 inmates have been relocated. The prison will move all of them to the other prisons eventually.
Sombat said landlords should collect only monthly rental fees, as evacuees would not be
staying for a long time. He urged them to offer homestay across the country to evacuees for one or two weeks to help ease their stress. The foundation would start the home-stay project in Chiang Rai.
Sombat also wanted private companies to allow employees affected by floods to have a day off while others who had not been hit by the flooding keep working.
More than 2,000 evacuees have taken shelter at the Government Complex in Chang Wattana, while a bottled water shortage has become a major problem. The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority has these people bags of drinking water.
The shelter has got these evacuees involved in activities, including making tray gardens, photo frames, embroidery and krathong (a lotus-shaped vessel) made of cornhusks.
