Hat Yai holds big flood clean-up

Hat Yai holds big flood clean-up

Residents in Hat Yai municipality cleaned up their homes on Tuesday after the floodwater dried up, but the flooding is still serious in Nakhon Si Thammarat, reports said.

Residents from four communitites of Songkhla's Hat Yai district, which was hardest hit by the flooding, began Big Cleaning Day activities today to clear flood-borne trash off the roads and cleaned up their flooded homes.

The cleaning event was organised by municipal officials with the help of the army.

The flooded Phetkasem Road, leading in and out of Hat Yai, is now passable to all types of vehicles.

The city is expected to return fully to normal tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the flood situation has worsened in Nakhon Si Thammarat due to heavy rain overnight in many areas especially in Sichon district, one of the six areas which had earlier been declared flood disaster zones.

People living in flooded areas of Nop Phi Tham district have been evacuated to a safe place, provincial governor Wirote Jiwarangsan said.

Four more districts -- Muang, Phra Phom, Hua Sai and Pak Phanang - were likely to be announced as disaster areas, Mr Wirote said.

In Phatthalung, several municipal areas are under 60-70 cm of water after a heavy downpour that lasted for more than four hours in the early morning hours.

In Yala, a nine-year-old girl drowned in Muang district.

More than 51,000 people in six districts have been affected by the deluge. Yala authorities said the flood situation was improving and they expected a return to normality in the next few days.

The Meteorological Department has warned residents of Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Ranong and Phangnga to brace for further flash floods and mountain runoff due to effects of the northeastern monsoon in the Gulf of Thailand and a low pressure cell covering the Andaman Sea.

~News courtesy of Bangkok Post~