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Published on October 13, 2007

A 50 year-old man was drowned yesterday in flood water while fishing in Phitsanulok's Muang district, bringing the province's death toll to five.

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department (DPMD) yesterday warned tourists visiting the 267 waterfalls nationwide of flash floods and urged them to observe danger signs and listen to warning alerts.

Kalasin deputy governor Pongsak Nartprada yesterday said the flooding situation in the province was stable since the rain stopped on Thursday night.

Water was pouring into the Lam Pao Dam - currently containing 277 million cubic metres more than its capacity of 1.43 billion cubic metres - at 34 million cubic metres per day, which the dam is releasing into the Pao River.

Pongsak reported that 50,000 families and 80,000 rai of farmland had been affected by flood waters. Officials have prepared relief bags to assist them.

In Roi Et's Thung Khao Luang area, residents of Tambon Beung Ngam were erecting barriers along a river to keep water from gushing into some 4,000 rai of farmland.

In Phitsanulok's Muang district, the body of fisherman Samreung Dangkaew, 50, was retrieved yesterday morning from Klong Ong Ang in Tambon Aranyik, which suffered run-offs from Wang Thong district. Police suspect that Samreung accidentally fell into the water and got entangled in a fishing net at night and drowned.

The flooding situation in the district remained critical, with residents having suffered inundation for a week due to continuing northern run-offs and steady rain.

Captain Pisit In-eium said about 180 households - many housing police and Army officers and nurses - in Siwaporn Village in Tambon Aranyik were under water.

In Phichit, forest run-offs hit 300 homes in five communities of Muang Taphan Hin municipality. Fifty families in Rom Klao community were unable to stay in their homes as flood waters reached nearly three metres. They are now living in roadside tents.

Five villages in Bang Mun Nak district were also on a verge of being flooded by the Nan River overflowing, and set up flood barriers while officials provided them with drinking water and dried food.

DPMD director-general Anucha Mokkhavesa warned that heavy downpours all over the country could lead to flash floods in waterfalls. A DPMD survey found 267 flash flood-prone waterfalls, mostly located in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

He urged visitors with children to be extra-cautious, strictly abide by warning signs and suggestions by security officials and refrain from swimming in a waterfall after heavy rain. The danger signs to watch for include rapidly increasing water levels and water turning an orange or reddish colour.

Up north, Jae Son National Park in Lampang's Muang Pan district has prohibited Thai and foreign tourists from swimming in the second tier of the seven-tier Jae Son Fall, as it is prone to flash floods.

Down south, following days of heavy rain, residents of Tambon Nong Chang Lan in Trang's Huay Yot district urged authorities to inspect a seven-metre-deep and six-metre-wide sinkhole and nearby cracks in the earth's surface in a rubber plantation, as they feared it might affect their residential areas.

The Nation