Flood victims findit difficult to cope
People wander along the mud-splattered streets of a village in Lablae district of Uttaradit province after floodwaters devastated the area, killing 77, with about 38 still missing.
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About 800 flood victims are suffering from stress while around 200 are experiencing mental disorders, the public health minister said.
Pinij Jarusombat visited the devastation in Uttradit and Phrae provinces yesterday to monitor the relief effort.
The death toll has risen to 77 and 38 people are still missing, according to Interior ministry figures.
Close to 200,000 were affected by the floods and landslide, with about 555 houses completely destroyed, the ministry said.
Pinij said flood victims suffering from mental trauma could not forget the incident, had trouble sleeping and were constantly in tears.
Pinij said the ministry had sent four teams of psychiatrists to the area and about 800 survivors had come for consultation sessions.
The psychiatrists will provide mental care for another six weeks, he said. The ministry's team also found villagers in many areas, especially in Laplae district of Uttaradit, experi?encing respiratory trouble from the dust from drying mud.
Pinij said the ministry's disease control teams would distribute 50,000 masks to villagers to filter out the dust.
On behalf of Princess Ubolratana he donated Bt800,000 to the vic?tims in Uttaradit and Phrae provinces. The princess's donation was distributed to 400 villagers in the two provinces. The International Health Security Office also gave Bt5 million to Uttaradit health officials.
Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications Commission has set up transmission towers for two-way radios in Sukhothai and Uttaradit provinces to provide resi?dents of flood-hit areas an alterna?tive channel for communicating.
Manas Songsaeng, deputy secre?tary-general of the NTC, yesterday said one repeater for amateur radio bands had been installed on Khao Luang mountain in Sukhothai's Sri Satchanalai district and another at the Sirikit Dam in Uttaradit.
He said the repeaters would allow two-way radio users to link networks and help authorities provide relief to flood victims.
Manas said the repeaters were installed in line with advice from His Majesty the King, who voiced concern that mobile phones had no signal in the province's forests.
He said his office also asked the AM 765 kHz radio station in Lampang to report on relief operations so people could monitor the progress.
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