Inundation costs Mae Sot close to Bt2 billion in losses

Though most areas in the Mae Sot municipality area were no longer flooded, Chaiyuth said tambons Tha Sai Luat and Tha Ard along the Mei River were still inundated, although the water level had gone down. He said Mei River overflows had also hit some 20 clothes-manufacturing plants, and their power had to be cut for safety reasons and some 4,000 workers had to be evacuated. He said the factories suffered damages of at least Bt800 million because the materials and machines were not moved in time. 

Prasong Santipanarak, manager of Chana Import Export Partnership, said the goods pending to be taken to Myanmar had been damaged and the firm was assessing the damage. He said that it would take up to a week for the goods transport to resume as floods had also affected Myanmar. 

Banphot Korkiatcharoen, adviser to the Tak Chamber of Commerce, is calling on all sides to use this as a lesson and set up concrete disaster-warning measures. He said the damage to border trade from the five-day flood could have been worth more than Bt1 billion, with up to Bt100 million in property damage. 

Meanwhile, floods in Chiang Rai province had affected 44,430 people in 16 districts with two people being killed from landslides in Mae Suay district on Monday and a youngster drowning in Mae Fa Luang district on Tuesday. In the Northeast, Nakhon Ratchasima’s Phimai district has returned to normal after the six sluice gates of the Phimai Dam were opened to release water on to the Lam Chakkarat waterway. 

Meanwhile, Bangkok Deputy Governor Jumpol Sumpaopol has instructed officials to check all billboards in the capital for safety. He said city officials had fixed 900 of the 1,600 billboards on 150 roads and was in the process of demolishing 70 illegal ones.