Residents in the flood-devastated Mueang and Mae Sai districts of Chiang Rai are being advised to postpone the cleaning up of their houses and businesses due to the possibility that several other northern and north-eastern provinces will be hit by a tropical depression, which is predicted to make landfall in central Vietnam Thursday night into Friday morning.
According to the Meteorological Department today, the depression, with a wind speed of 55kph at its centre, is now moving west across the South China Sea towards central Vietnam at speed of 25kph. It will have intensified into a tropical storm when it hits Vietnam, before weakening back to a tropical depression as it moves into Thailand.
Northern, northeastern, central and eastern provinces will be lashed by heavy rainfall and strong winds from of tomorrow night, said Chanchuda Pornsri, chief of the Weather Forecast Division of the Meteorological Department.
A weather simulation model indicates that the tropical storm will not be as severe as the Yagi typhoon that struck Vietnam last week, and which wrought havoc in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and northern Thailand.
Asked whether the depression will result in more widespread flooding in Chiang Rai, Chanchuda said she would like to advise flood victims not to clean up their muddy houses until the depression passes.
According to satellite images taken on Monday, by the Radarsat-2 satellite of the Geo-Informatics and Satellite Technology and Development Agency (GISTDA), over 76,000 hectares of mostly rice fields in Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom, Sakhon Nakhon, Bueng Kan and Udon Thani are currently under water. Many households and roads are also flooded.
