King orders more relief kits for flood victims in South
CONCERNED OVER the plight of flood victims in southern Thailand, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn has instructed his representatives to provide more relief kits for people affected by the deluge.
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha revealed yesterday that the King had ordered the handing out of aid packages, which normally contain food, medicine and a flashlight.
Affirming that the government was not ignoring the people’s plight, Prayut said Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda had visited the region yesterday while Agriculture Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya planned to tour the area today.
He said the government was trying to prevent floods in the future and urged people to cooperate in the designation of flood retention areas or the digging of canals to drain water into the sea.
In Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Bang Saphan district where the flood situation improved yesterday, Bang Saphan Hospital was unable to admit new patients because of 80cm-deep floodwaters around the compound. The general examination, childbirth and X-ray rooms were inundated while some medical tools and supplies were also damaged.
Disaster prevention officials installed pumps to drain water from the building.
The hospital also evacuated 75 of the 123 patients on the building’s sixth floor to three nearby hospitals because of a shortage of clean water caused by the malfunctioning of a water pump.
Deputy Army spokesperson Colonel Sirichan Ngathong said Army chief General Chalermchai Sittisat planned to visit affected residents in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Pak Phanang district today. She also said that the Fourth Army Region had been continuously helping victims and most of them were in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Surat Thani and Chumphon.
In Surat Thani’s Phunphin district, residents of Ban Thung Ao village in Tambon Sri Wichai, which has about 260 homes, yesterday moved belongings and livestock to higher ground above the one-metre-deep floodwater.
Trang province has declared eight districts as flood disaster zones, including Muang, Kantang, Na Yong, Wang Wiset, Huay Yot, Rassada, Yan Ta Khao, and Palian districts, where about 50,000 residents were affected, 35,000 rai of farmland was inundated, several roads were flooded and at least 50 schools suspended classes indefinitely due to flooding. Muang and Kantang were the worst hit areas with up to three metres of floodwater.