Pathum Thani residents forced to evacuate as sluice gates break

The Nation October 14, 2011 8:01 am

Public told not to panic amid 'huge' water volumes

Residents of Pathum Thani’s Rattanakosin area and the White House estate, as well as people living in the Rangsit area were told to move out yesterday after the sluice gates of Khlong Ban Phrao in Sam Khok district fell apart.

The Government’s Flood Relief Operation Centre spokesman Wim Rungwattanajinda yesterday urged Pathum Thani residents especially Rangsit as well as those in Northern Bangkok's Sai Mai and Don Muang districts to evacuate to the Don Muang Airport or Thammasat University Rangsit Campus. Those in White House and Rattanakosin villages, at risk of onemeterdeep flood should move first, he added.

Science Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi said he was sorry about what happened despite the officials' best attempts to repair the busted floodwalls.

Although the situation was bleak, he however urged people not to panic as they still had time to act by moving belongings to secondfloors, parking cars at higher grounds, evacuating from their homes although they were secondstorey. "...The water amount is immense. We will stand side by side and we will survive but I cannot think of anything right now...," he said in shaky voice urging atrisk people to evacuate to Don Muang first.

In the later press conference, Flood Relief Operation Centre director Pracha Phromnok told the public not to panic and officials were working hard on repair the Pathum Thani busted floodwalls, as the team that had successfully repaired the Sing Buri's Bang Chomsri sluice gate went in to help.

Meanwhile some 2,000 families were evacuated from 70cm deepflooded Parichart Village in Pathum Thani's Muang district to temporary shelters yesterday afternoon, as the electricity for the village was also cut for safety.

The nearby 345 Road was also impassable as it was under onemeterdeep flood.

Pathum Thani Governor Peerasak Hinmuangkao said the sluice gates at Wat Pa Fai, Wat Tamnak and Wat Hong Pathummawas were beyond repair, and were therefore allowing water into Muang district. He said authorities were trying to divert the water via Khlong Rangsit 16.

With Tambon Chiang Rak Noi, Chiang Rak Yai, Ban Ngew and Ban Pathum in Pathum Thani's Sam Khok district facing rising water levels, the Provincial Administrative Organisation chief Chan Poungpetch said some residents were blocking officials from building makeshift dykes because they wanted everyone to share their problems.

Meanwhile, Pathum Thani Hospital director Dr Songpol Chawaltanpipat said he was confident that all emergency cases could be tended to. At present, the hospital has 160 inpatients without respiratory aid, though critical cases have been moved to other hospitals.

In Thanyaburi district, officials have been piling up sandbags to block floodwater at the Chulalongkorn sluice gate between Rangsit canal and the Chao Phraya River. Water at the site rose 10centimetres higher than the flood embankment and 1.2metres higher than the slice gate's water level.

In Nonthaburi, overflows from the Nakhon Nonthaburi Municipality's Bang Phraek 1 Slice Gate poured into Sanam Bin Nam Road in front of the Corrections Department and inundated many lowlying areas. Communities along the Chao Phraya River were under a metre of water and sandbag barriers were built to stop the water from flowing into the inner city.

Inmates from Nonthaburi Prison were seen piling on more sandbags and lining up hundreds of 200litre oil drums to further shore up the embankments, while people living by the Nonthaburi Pier built concrete walls in front of their homes and stockpiled food and drinking water.

In Nakhon Sawan's Muang district, Sawan Pracharak Hospital and five other private hospitals announced temporary closure yesterday as 650 patients were transported to other hospitals such as the Jiraprawat Camp Hospital and other provinces.

Meanwhile, 10 patients in critical state were airlifted to hospitals in Phitsanulok. Authorities at Jiraprawat Camp Hospital have complained of overcrowding and are asking for more camp beds, while an emergency medical unit was set up at the Phaholyothin intersection with medical staff from Phayao, Chiang Rai and Nan lending hand.

In Lop Buri, where 70,000 families have been suffering from inundation for more than a month, 2,000 people were diagnosed as being severely depressed and 500 of them need medication because they are suicidal, provincial public health officer Dr Sirichai Limsakul said.

Flood levels in Lop Buri continues to rise by 3cm to 5cm, while districts to the west like Ban Mi, Tha Wung and Muang remain totally submerged. Since the Royal Irrigation Department has been diverting water through the Manoron sluice gate as well as the Chai NatPasak canal at 60 million cubic metres per day, Lop Buri's governor is calling on officials to raise the floodwalls along the canal by a metre.

Meanwhile the Royal Irrigation Department has urged officials in Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Bangkok to strengthen floodwalls to handle seawater inflows from yesterday to Tuesday, especially since the tide at the Memorial Bridge was reported to have reached 2.2 metres yesterday.

The speed of water measured in Nakhon Sawan stood at 4,686 cubic metres per second, in Chai Nat's Chao Phraya Dam at 3,625, in Sing Buri at 2,880, Angthong at 2,648 and in Ayutthaya's Bang Sai district at 3,777 cubic meters per second. Most of these figures are lower than those reported a day earlier because the Bhumibol, Sirikit and Pasak Chonlasit dams are releasing less water at 60 million, 20 million and 38 million cubic metres per day respectively.