Villagers living in low-lying areas of Mae Ramat, Tha Song Yang and Mae Sot districts in Tak have been ordered to move to avoid flash-floods, while those living in mountainous areas were ordered to stand by for evacuation in case of landslides.

The provincial relief operations office said movements of the earth's surface in the three districts were picked up by satellite in the morning. An evacuation order issued by a central coordination centre under the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry was received by local authorities in the evening.

A late weather forecast warned of more heavy rains in Sukhothai, especially in the low-lying Yom River basin and in Sri Samrong and Kong Krailat districts, which are already facing swollen rivers, for the next few days.

Sixty-two bodies of flood victims have been recovered so far while 53 people are still unaccounted for, according to an official count from the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.

The flooding has affected or displaced about 121,000 people from 39,000 households in the five affected provinces, including Phrae, Nan and Lampang.

The search for dead bodies was the slowest in Uttaradit's Tha Pla district, where 44 people have been reported missing. Assistant district chief Narongsak Sang-ngern said all the bodies might have been swept away to Sirikit Dam 30 kilometres downstream, judging from the course of water to the dam, and especially evidence left along the route.

Rescue workers are tracing the two-kilometre-wide channel and have come across many dead fowl and tens of dead water buffaloes along it.

"Also found were home appliances, with hundreds of refrigerators scattered around. But no bodies have been found, apart from the 10 we retrieved earlier," Narongsak said.

Maj-General Narongsak Phooaree, chief of the Uttaradit Provincial Military Precinct, said searches in Laplae district were going much better than those being conducted in Tha Pla.

"Laplae district was hit by logs, making bodies easier to be seen, but in Tha Pla, the water washed away everything and the following mud covered the water path," he said.

Floodwaters in Sukhothai have now inundated six districts while damaging tens of thousands of rai of farmland and disturbing about 3,000 households. A lower stretch of the Yom River is expected to well up today after the surge moves southwards.

Phornthip Jiannuch, a Muang Sukhothai district local, said she could only watch her house washed away by strong flood current after narrowly escaping from it. "I lost everything in it although I and my two daughters have survived," she added.

Many people whose houses surrounded by strong current have to let their property washed way in similar ways, after army engineers refused to dismantle and relocated their homes to safe areas at their request because of the operations were too risky for their personnel.