Floods remain in many areas in Thai South

BANGKOK, January 4 (TNA) - A new round of floods, hitting the Thai South since the beginning of 2012, has remained in many areas, including those in downtown Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, although the Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport has resumed its aviation services since Wednesday morning. Many areas in the Nakhon Si Thammarat Municipality, for instance, have remained inundated and impassable for small vehicles, forcing a temporary suspension of train services between the Nakhon Si Thammarat and the Khokkhram Railway Stations due to flooded tracks. In Surat Thani Province, local officials and relief workers were transporting food, drinking water and medical supplies across the Khram Canal with slings and were then carrying the supplies farther on foot for a distance of over three kilometers to help over 50 isolated, flooded households in Baan Na Tham Village of Tha Uthae locality in Kanchanadit District, from which children, women and the elderly are expected to be evacuated by today while the sky has remained cloudy. In Hat Yai District of Songkhla Province, the flooding situation has returned to normal but some flood-damaged schools have remained closed. In Phatthalung Province, flooding has begun to ease in six districts near the Banthat Mountain Range, but there have remained over 10,000 flood-affected households in nearly 100 low-lying villages in Muang, Bang Kaeo, Khao Chaison, Khuan Khanoon and Pak Phayoon Districts standing by the Songkhla Lake, with floodwater in Muang District alone measured at 70-80 centimetres and as many as 20 local schools having been closed on what should have been the first school day of this year on Wednesday. (TNA)