Floods have affected the lives of more than 100,000 people in the North, many of who have lost family members and remain stranded amid the debris.

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department yesterday said the flood had already claimed 30 lives and 77 people were still missing. Up to 1,240 victims were evacuated.

Early Tuesday, the flash floods and landslides ravaged Uttaradit, Sukhothai, Phrae, Lampang and Nan. Of all these northern provinces, Uttaradit was the worst hit with piles of debris scattered across many villages.

More than 600 rescue workers yesterday scoured the worst-hit villages in Uttaradit's Laplae district to search for survivors. Along the way, they retrieved eight bodies of flood victims and said they believe the raging torrents might have swept many more bodies into a local river.

"It's hard. It's difficult.

We are trying to find enough rice for the people affected," Tambon Mae Poon Administrative Organisation's chairman Sakorn Ouncharoen said. He also complained that the Laplae district was now struggling without electricity and phone communication.

"There's no cell-phone signal. The public telephones here are not working anymore because they are already full of coins," Sakorn said.

Kam Kamsen, a 49-year-old flood victim, called for urgent assistance. "If it comes too late, we may starve to death or commit suicide out of stress. We have never seen such a disaster. I have already lost everything, except my life," he said.

Laplae district chief Thongchai Teyathiti said it was proving impossible to reach some flood victims because of severed routes.

"If there's no more rain, we will bring in heavy equipment and should be able to restore villages within two weeks," he said.

The Meteorological Department yesterday forecast scattered rain and downpours in various regions including the North. It added that the flooding in Uttaradit, Sukhothai, Phrae, Lampang and Nan would likely continue for one or two more days.

Uttaradit has been hit by more than 300 millimetres of rainfall over the past few days. Generally, the province only has 1,500 millimetres of rainfall a year.

Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra flew to Uttaradit and Sukhothai yesterday to inspect the flood damage.

"We are seriously and urgently providing assistance. Urgent needs will be tended to first," he said.

Meanwhile, relief packages and emergency medical staff were flown into Sukhothai's Sri Satchanalai district yesterday to help thousands of people left homeless or injured by the floods that have devastated huge swathes of the North.

The disaster has already claimed seven lives in this northern province, and as of late last night, the search was continuing for four people, including an eight-year-old girl, lost during the floods and landslides.

"People in flooded areas are now sheltering in temples and the compounds of government agencies," said Sukhothai disaster-prevention and mitigation chief Tassanai Toneyai.

In the hardest-hit areas, floodwaters were still as high as one metre last night.

Tassanai said water was running away from the Sri Satchanalai district, but the run-off was starting to make its presence felt in nearby districts.

In Sawankhalok district, a downtown area in Muang Sawankhalok municipality, more than 100 shops stood closed yesterday afternoon.

In Phrae, the body of 42-year-old Surachai Senatham was found in a pickup buried by landslides near a bridge in Muang district. Reports of missing people continue to pour in.

Prayuth Nawayont, who heads the Phrae Educational Service Area 2 office, said he had ordered the temporary closure of 11 schools.

"The schools can reopen when it's safe," he said.

In Lampang, hundreds of residents in Thoen district ran for their lives yesterday morning when run-off water from Phrae poured into more than 200 homes. The flooding also submerged more than 100 rai of farmland.

In Mae Hong Son, people in low-lying areas were told to evacuate to higher ground, as water levels in the Pai River were rising ominously.

Meanwhile, Tak Deputy Governor Surachai Peungjitton has called a state of high alert throughout his province.