Yom River bursts banks to flood village

The swollen Yom River washed out a section of a road that serves as a flood levee in Sukhothai’s Muang district and quickly inundated a large area of one tambon early on Sunday.

Officials said the strong current of the Yom River, which became bloated because of run-off floodwaters from Phrae, also burst its banks to flood many parts of three other districts that the river runs through: Khalok, Sri Samrong, Muang and Kong Krailat districts.

Nussara Boonphol, chief of Tambon Yang Sai, said the strong tide washed out a 50-metre section of an earth road along the river in Ban Wang Pho in her tambon at about 5am.

The water then gushed in to flood 120 houses in the village and spread out to flood some 100 rai of rice fields in the tambon, Nussara added.

Sukhothai Governor Suchart Tikasakul rushed to the spot to oversee efforts to fix the levee and to set up a flood operation centre in the village.

Officials were mobilised from several agencies and were backed up by troops. But at the press time, had not been able to fix the 50-metre collapsed levee.

Troops helped the local officials to build makeshift levees with sandbags to try to protect the village from more floodwaters.

Officials also set up levees to prevent the inner part of Muang district, which is the economic zone at the downtown area, from being flooded.

Veera Buachan, Sukhothai chief agriculture officer, said some farmers had already harvested their rice crops but there were some 200 rai of rice fields where the harvest had not been done. Veera said officials would survey the damage and compensate rice farmers accordingly.

On Sunday morning, the water level on the Yom River in front of the Sukhothai governor’s residence was 7.63 metres with water flowing at the rate of 469.6 cubic metres per second. Officials would continue to monitor the water levels in the four districts as the deluge from Phrae arrived.