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Death Toll of Thai Flash Floods Rises to 78
Death toll of flash floods and mud-slides in northern Thailand has climbed to 78 while 70 people were still missing, the government-owned MCOT radio reported Monday morning.
In the most severely-hit Phetchabun province, 340 kilometers north of Bangkok, operations of searching for the missing and retrieving dead bodies have been halted temporarily due to the likelihood of more heavy rains ahead.
Since the disaster started early Saturday, triggered by Typhoon Usagi, 7 villages in the province have been wiped out, leading to huge property and life losses.
A total of some 7,000 people have been affected by the floods, which also caused damage to more than 3,000 hectares of farming and residential land.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who flown into the flooded area Sunday, offered each victim 10,000 baht (222 U.S. dollars) from his own pocket, and another package of 37,000 baht (822 dollars) was also given to the each family of the dead as a government financial aid.
The Meteorological Department predicted that heavy rain would continue in the north for another day or two.
Other northern provinces could be affected in the coming days are Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kamphaeng Phet, Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Lampang, it said. Also, residents of low-lying areas in some northeastern provinces were warned of floods.
Some environmentalists blamed the deforestation in the north for causing the floods and damages.
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