Crafting a tale of recent events, we find ourselves in the captivating city of Chiang Rai, where the might of the mountain deluge took control, leading the Chan River to a state of overflow. The fallout resulted in at least eight peaceful villages in the scenic Mae Chan district succumbing to the severe flooding. The report released on Monday indicated that even the vital connectivity passage, the Chan-Mae Ai highway, found itself engulfed under 30 centimetres of relentless floodwater.
In response to the raging water crisis, the provincial ringmaster, Governor Puttipong Sirimat, swiftly ordered local officials to safeguard the vulnerable. He directed them to help villagers, especially the elderly and disabled, seek refuge on higher ground. The intrinsic fortitude of the governor’s leadership was evident as he also decreed swift repairs to a steel bridge in Huai Ya No, which had become a casualty of the unforgiving floodwaters, thus cutting off access to the village.
Rolling into the dawn of Monday, Nan reported that Highway 101, a key corridor linking the province to neighbouring Phrae, was floundering under a one-metre-deep inundation. As the day progressed, the once rampant water level on the road was tamed to 30cm, allowing traffic to regain some its original rhythm, albeit moving cautiously in both directions.
However, the province was not entirely spared as it also witnessed several mudslides in the Wiang Sa district. The uproar of nature brought down trees and electricity poles, filling roads with blockades. Fortuitously, until the point of the report there were no casualties reported.
With empathetic hearts, officials in Phitsanulok played their part, too. They provided more than 300 households with survival kits and other essential items in Wang Thong district, which had already been battling floods since the past weekend. The district’s main roadway, Highway 12, was still struggling under 30-50cm of water, proving to be an impasse for smaller vehicles. Undeterred, officials pressed on deploying water pumps in Wang Thong’s commercial district with predictions pointing towards a flood recession by Monday evening if there were no further rainstorms.
Moving to Phichit’s Pho Prathap Chang district, we see an example of local ingenuity. Villagers began to construct protective barriers using fishing nets on their first-storey windows, their goal to deter unwanted snake intruders seeking shelter from the flood. Villager Rangsan Klomjit shared his success on Monday, reporting the capture of a cobra in his protective fishing net. He recollected the success of this method during last year’s floods when he caught as many as 13 snakes.
Phichit was hit hard as the relentless Yom River, fuelled by continuous rainfall on Saturday, breached its banks leaving around 600 households in Sam Ngam, Pho Prathap Chang, Bueng Narang and Bang Mun Nak districts submerged. On Monday, signs of the river showing mercy seemed bleak. With its water level having risen another 11cm during the last 24-hour period to a disturbing 5.38 metres, it was introducing more floodwater to riverside communities. Alongside the lives disrupted, the flood also imprinted its destructive stamp on the agricultural sector, flooding some 580 rai (approximately 230 football pitches) of Phichit rice fields.
Be First to Comment