Welcome to the monsoon chronicles of Thailand’s south, where the skies unleash their fury and the earth turns to a vast canvas of rivers where there should be streets! You’ve got it, folks – we’re talking about a deluge that’s decided to make a splash in no less than five of the southern belle provinces, with Narathiwat caught in the heart of this watery whirlwind.
Imagine stepping out your door, only to float down your driveway – this isn’t Venice, but it’s sure starting to look like it! Narathiwat’s eleven districts are playing an unsolicited game of underwater hide-and-seek. And as you’d guess, the participation is high, with 16,680 households treading water.
Yala, Pattani, Songkhla, and Satun haven’t been spared either, as the rain’s relentless rhythm has set a damp tone since last Friday. Our grand total of rain-drenched spectators? A whopping 19,624 families who are redefining indoor pools in 24 districts. We’re talking about over 142 square kilometers that have incredibly morphed into an accidental lake, with swaths of what used to be paddy fields now doubling as aquatic attractions.
But hang tight! The man of the hour, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, along with his trusty cabinet entourage, plans to wade through the situation in Narathiwat post-Tuesday’s cabinet jam session. They say rain starts with a single drop, and hopefully, so does relief.
Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty served up by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency. These folks paint a liquid picture with their pixels, reporting an expanse of floodwaters having a party across the ill-fated terrain on Monday eve.
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation is the bearer of somewhat good news (or so we hope), with flood levels doing a bashful retreat in most, but not all, locales. Satun’s Khuan Don is waving a soggy white flag, while Songkhla’s Khlong Hoi Khong and Saba Yoi districts are orchestrating their own water ballet. Pattani’s districts of Kapho, Muang, Nong Chik, and others are pondering flotation devices. And let’s not forget Yala – they’ve got their own submerged stories to tell.
So, as the clouds continue their aquatic onslaught, let’s tip our hats to the rhythm of Mother Nature and hope for sunnier days. For now, let’s put on those galoshes, find humor in our buoyant spirits, and swim through the tide of this tale, where the spirit of Thailand’s southern residents refuses to be watered down.
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