Floods remain critical in many areas in Thai South

SOUTHERN THAILAND, January 9 (TNA) - The flooding situation remains critical in many southern Thai areas although inundations in some other areas have been receding. In Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, officials were checking systems at the provincial airport, where floods have been receding, to assess whether the airport could be reopened for normal services on January 10, after a four-day closure. As workers were cleaning the compound, Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport Director Suksawas Sukwanno told journalists that experts were set to test all electric systems at the airport, as well as the readiness and the capability of the runway on Monday afternoon to see whether the airport could resume their aviation services to, normally, serve 26 daily flights. In Songkhla Province, floods have, however, expanded from areas around Songkhla Lake to now five districts due to a slow drainage of water into the Gulf of Thailand and inflows of floodwater from adjacent provinces, forcing all 54 local schools in the affected areas to have been closed indefinitely. In Krabi Province, officials were evacuating local residents from the flood-hit provincial seat, caused by forest run-offs from the Phanombenja Mountain Range, as two districts had been struck by the flash floods since Sunday night, with about 30 houses submerged, while authorities were conducting a survey on damages. In Trang Province, the flooding situation also remains critical as floodwater has risen by 20-30 centimeters, prompting monks at the Prasitchai Temple in the provincial seat to have evacuated to stay at other temples and several schools have been closed, while heavy rainfalls on Monday morning also increased the floodwater level in Nayong District. In Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, forest run-offs from the Tanaosri Mountain Range posed a flood threat to Bang Saphan Hospital, prompting concerned agencies to urgently build embankments to prevent floodwater from flowing into the hospital, as its surrounding areas had already been inundated. Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister ML Panadda Diskul told reporters that his ministry plans to send over 7,500 volunteer vocational and non-formal students to provide assistance to flood victims in the Thai South on January 13 to help local communities and flood victims where inundations are receding get back on their feet, with their main missions including moving belongings to safe grounds and setting up Fix It centres to provide help to all victims. The deputy minister acknowledged that his ministry has already ordered flood-hit schools to provide make-up classes for their students after the flooding situation returns to normal. According to the deputy minister, a total of 1,791 schools out of the total number of 4,337 schools in all 14 southern Thai provinces have been affected by the current floods, 98 of which were hardest hit, with overall damages initially estimated at over 700 million baht. Most of the schools in the Thai South were set to reopen for their students as of January 12, 2017. (TNA)