Special holiday to brace for flood
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The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to declare Thursday, Friday and next Monday as special holidays in 21 floodhit provinces.
Combined with Saturday and Sunday, that brings the total holiday to five days.
Several parties had proposed that the government announce a long holiday so that workers from the provinces would leave Bangkok ahead of the imminent floods.
The announcement came as massive water runoff from the north inundated the western part of the capital.
The prime minister had earlier declined to announce a special holiday for fear that there would not be a sufficient number of government officials to handle the flood crisis. But while stopping short of ordering private companies to close, the prime minister encouraged the private sector to cease operations on their own so that their employees could leave Bangkok.
