O MAR DO POETA: CHEIAS NA TAILÂNDIA

Diante da enchente de 1 metro de profundidade, Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital está lutando arduamente para cuidar de seus 1.200 pacientes, 100 dos quais nos cuidados intensivos.

Saint Mary's Hospital - Nakhon Ratchasima

In the face of 1-metre-deep floodwater, Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital is struggling hard to take care of its 1,200 inpatients, 100 of whom are in intensive care.

Meanwhile, outside the hospital, the situation continued to cause great concern yesterday with the flood-related death toll climbing to five in Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital, which is located in the heart of the province, was no longer accessible by cars or small vehicles of any kind. Only trucks were able to transport patients, food and other necessary items between this large hospital and other parts of the province.

"We have to order food from outside to feed 3,000 patients and staff," said the hospital's acting director, Dr Suwannee Tangweerapornpong. "We have also had to hire private entrepreneurs to launder our patients' hospital clothes."

Floods have damaged the hospital's washing machines and kitchen utensils, among other things. The overall damage was estimated yesterday at no less than Bt40 million, which is in addition to flood damage suffered by its Bt50-million cobalt-60 teletherapy unit.

Suwannee said the hospital's mortuary was now flooded, and that the bodies had to be kept at a corner of the hospital instead.

"There are about 15 bodies each day," she added.

The housing units for staff within the hospital compound were also submerged, and the meeting room on the ninth floor of the main building was serving as their temporary shelter.

Up to 30 per cent of the staff members, meanwhile, could not get to work because of the serious flooding.

Starting yesterday, the hospital was also treating outpatients at Suranaree School and the Pegasus Hotel.

Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital and Nakhon Ratchasima Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital were among the worst-hit facilities during the current flooding.

The psychiatric hospital has about 100 inpatients.

"In all, floods have seriously damaged 10 state medical facilities," he said. Seven of them are in Nakhon Ratchasima, two in Buri Ram and one in Lop Buri.

Jurin said the ministry's deputy permanent secretary, Dr Narong Sahametha, had been assigned to chair a war room that would make decisions on how best to alleviate flood-related problems.

"Assistance will be reported daily," he said.

He added that extra medical teams would be dispatched to flooded facilities. "If necessary, we will send medical workers to patients' homes, too," he said.

The minister said all public-health offices in flooded provinces were now instructed to send mobile medical units to flood victims as well.

"Clear referral charts must be made to provide maximum convenience to patients," he added.

The ministry's permanent secretary, Dr Paijit Warachit, said hospitals in Buri Ram and Chaiyaphum had been instructed to take over seriously ill inpatients from Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital.

Saint Mary's Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima, a private facility, was seriously flooded, too.

Some 116 vehicles belonging to medical workers and patients were under water yesterday, while part of the hospital's walls crumbled under the weight of the floodwater.

Fonte - The Nation Bangkok

Rescue workers and soldiers use a long rope yesterday to evacuate flood victims from Maharat Hospital on Chang Puek Road in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Muang district as floodwaters inundate the hospital. SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL

Swirling currents which swept through the province's Muang district have crippled government and private businesses and forced hospitals to close.

Troops, police and volunteers worked frantically yesterday to help rescue residents trapped in their homes, their operations hampered by strong currents and high waters.

The flooding is most critical in Pak Thong Chai and Muang districts. Five people have been killed in Korat. One person was found dead in Pak Chong district, two in Sung Noen and two in Dan Khun Tho, officials said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday inspected the situation in Nakhon Ratchasima municipality.

Locals asked him to speed up distribution of survival kits as relief operations have not reached many areas.

"Prime Minister, bring us food and sandbags," villagers shouted as Mr Abhisit's boat passed their homes.

Heavy military trucks and flat-bottom boats were used to evacuate people from flooded areas and deliver food and water to affected communities.

Most roads in the provincial town were under water. Many cars and pickup trucks were submerged and left on the street because their owners were unable to move them to higher ground before the deluge hit.

"I've never seen a flood disaster this big in my entire life. I remember there was a big flood in 1959, but that was much less devastating than this one," said a woman in her 50s as a rescue worker evacuated her mother from their flooded home in Muang Nakhon Nayok municipality to safety.

Before the rescue unit arrived, residents joined forces to help each other. Men carried the young and old on their backs to safety through the swirling currents.

Other villagers struggled desperately to retrieve their belongings from the surging waters.

"Please help me build a [flood] barrier," a woman who owns a sports equipment shop in the municipality asked a journalist as she tried to create a wall of sandbags in front of her shop.

"I've lost everything now," she said.

Nakhon Ratchasima governor Rapee Pongbuppakit said 21 of the province's 32 districts had been inundated and declared disaster zones.

The floods yesterday hit three hospitals in the province, leaving thousands of staff, patients and visitors stranded on the higher floors.

At Maharat Hospital in Muang district, the floodwaters in the hospital were about 1.5 metres high yesterday afternoon.

The hospital was ill-prepared for the inundation and the bodies of six patients who had died and were being kept on the ground floor were seen floating in the mortuary.

The hospital has set up a temporary service centre outside the hospital to serve patients and relatives.

About 250 patients at the nearby Psychiatric Nakhon Ratchasima Ratchanakharin Hospital fled to higher floors after the ground floor was flooded.

At St Mary's Hospital off Mittraphap Road, the ground floor was also flooded. All hospital staff, patients and their relatives were stranded.

Officials said about 6,000 people were trapped at Maharat and St Mary's hospitals. They asked for donations of food, drinking water and other essential items for those trapped.

Affected villagers say what is most needed is cooked rice as they have no electricity or cooking utensils. Many villagers want sandbags to try to block floodwaters from entering their homes.

Fonte - Bangkok Post

Officials ordered to keep close watch on all canals

Published: 19/10/2010 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is on full alert for possible heavy flooding in coming days.

Thousands were stranded yesterday at Maharat Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Muang district as the hospital and a vast area surrounding it were inundated. PHOTOS BY SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra yesterday called a meeting of city executives to coordinate measures to prevent flooding in the capital.

The move follows reports that the upstream Pasak Jolasid Dam in Lop Buri might not be able to hold any more water and was expected to open its gates to allow outflows to central provinces downstream in one or two days.

MR Sukhumbhand said city officials must keep a close watch of all canals in Bangkok and prepare relief bags. Schools, temples and mosques would be used to accommodate flood victims should they need to be evacuated.

Drainage and Sewerage Department director Sanya Cheenimit said Pasak Jolasid and other upstream dams were expected to release water into the Chao Phraya River at a rate of 3,000 cubic metres a second, up from the 2,600 cubic metres now released.

This will place 27 or 28 communities not protected by Bangkok's 76 kilometres of embankments along the Chao Phraya River at risk of flooding.

There are 1,000 to 1,300 households in these communities on the western side of Bangkok.

Water pumps have been installed in areas vulnerable to flooding and the BMA should be able to drain off the floodwater within 12 hours, Mr Sanya said.

Pickup trucks and cars are submerged in the parking lot of St Mary’s Hospital inMuang district. PRASIT TANGPRASERT

Soldiers assistanelderlywomanout of a flooded area.

Atraffic officer approaches twomen pushing a samlor through floodwaters in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Arescue worker pulls awomanfrom the water as a strong current sweeps along Chang Phuek Road in Muangdistrict.

Winai Laosiang, 56, stands by a coffin containing the body of his wife.Hewas waiting for a military truck to carry the coffin toatemple outside the flood-hit area.