Flooding causes havoc in Mae Hong Son
NEARLY 10,000 residents and tourists in Mae Hong Son’s Pai and Pang Mapha districts were affected by flash floods after heavy downpours caused the Pai River to burst its banks yesterday.
Riverside residents in Muang district were also told to evacuate as run-off from upstream districts was expected to hit the area last night.
Floodwaters began receding about 8am, leaving residents with a big clean-up job.
More floods hit Pai town around 9am, but waters began to recede by noon, deputy provincial governor Suwapong Kittipatpaiboon said.
Suwapong and other provincial officials were holding a meeting at a Pai resort on disaster prevention in the wake of bombings on Friday in the South, when they found themselves stranded by the flood and had to wade out.
Officials, meanwhile, were dispatched on rubber boats to take stranded tourists from some two dozen riverside homes and resorts in Pai to two evacuation centres – Pai district office’s meeting hall and the Tambon Mae He Administrative Organisation’s office. Pai has a dense tourist population.
Provincial governor Pipat Ekpapan, who later inspected the area for flood damage, told officials to urgently help victims as well as gather information on flood damage for future remedial measures.
Pai district chief Thanakrit Chanthajamrassilpa later yesterday concluded that some 10,000 people in four tambons – Wiang Tai, Mae He, Mae Na Terng and Thung Yao – had been affected, with damage to 30 homes, 30 resorts, 30 motorcycles and two concrete bridges, plus 10,000 rai of farmland so far.
In Pang Mapha, Ban Tham Lod village headman Yontrachai Sopaworakan said Tambon Tham Lod had been severely affected by the floods with a concrete bridge linking the village and the district’s city area also damaged, resulting in many people including 20 tourists getting stranded. Some 1,500 rai of farmland in Pang Mapha and two wooden bridges were damaged by the flooding.
Sobthana Anprasert, director of the Mae Hong Son tourism authority, said the situation in Pai had returned to normal as of 2pm and the floods had not hurt arrivals as no visitors had cancelled bookings.
In related news, the weather bureau warned yesterday of severe conditions due to more rain around the country – heavy to very heavy downpours in the North, Northeast, East and South. It said stronger wind would make waves in the Andaman Sea and the upper Gulf two to four metres high, and warned all ships to proceed with caution and small boats to stay ashore until Thursday.
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