Floodwater has receded from numerous parts of Hat Yai district yesterday , making it possible for many residents, who have been trapped in their flooded houses or buildings for the past several days, to venture out, feel the warmth of the sun and to look for food. Convenience stores and street food shops remain closed though.
Despite the improving situation, emergency response teams from charitable foundations and the military continue their efforts to distribute food and drinking water and to evacuate thousands of people still marooned in their houses in low-lying areas, which are still submerged.
An official at the military-run Flood Emergency Situation Forward Command Centre, headed by the supreme commander, said that staff there are still working around the clock to help flood victims.
Rescue teams from the centre managed to evacuate about 100 stranded people from their houses in a severely-flooded area this morning.
A Thai PBS news crew reported today that the flood level on the Phetkasem and Sri Phuvanard roads, as well as on several other roads in the commercial district, has dropped substantially, making them passable to small vehicles again.
For instance, the floodwater at the foot of Tinsulanonda Bridge is now about only 5cm deep and passable to all vehicles. Many roads are, however, now strewn with garbage.
Supreme Commander Gen Ukrit Boontanont said today that additional evacuation shelters will be set up to cope with the increasing number of evacuees, adding that more field hospitals and dialysis service clinics will also be opened.
He informed a meeting of the forward command centre that more than 100,000 households, homes to over 240,000 people in Hat Yai, have been affected by the flooding. More than 14,000 people are being accommodated in 11 evacuation shelters.
Meanwhile, the Department of Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation reported today that more than a million households of 2.8 million people in nine southern provinces have been affected by the current flooding. The death toll is currently put at 25, including five in Songkhla.
In the meantime, the Meteorological Department forecasts less rainfall in the extreme south, but with heavy rain in some areas of Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, Pattani, Trang and Satun provinces.
