Perilous Times and Climate Change
Death toll in Thai flood crisis hits 140
by Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) Nov 5, 2010
Severe flooding across much of Thailand has cost the lives of at least
140 people, officials said Friday, with almost seven million affected.
Floods, which had crippled much of central and eastern Thailand in
October, began to deluge the south of the country on Monday after days
of downpours, leaving at least 30 people dead in the region.
The deaths across eight southern provinces bring the total nationwide
toll to 140, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said,
with homes and businesses inundated and farmland damaged.
In Songkhla, 13 people were killed while thousands of soldiers were
sent on Thursday to help the stranded after flash floods surged through
Hat Yai, a city popular with tourists from Singapore and Malaysia. The
waters later receded.
The official toll does not include the bodies of 12 Thai fishermen
found floating off the coast of Pattani. Police believe their trawler
capsized on Monday night in rough seas.
Tourists have been caught up in the crisis as some popular holiday
spots were hit by bad weather.
On Wednesday marine police boats rescued about 100 Thai and foreign
tourists from Koh Tao, an island in Surat Thani province, after they
were stranded for half a day, while Koh Samui airport was briefly
closed.
Fifty of Thailand's 76 provinces have been affected by the floods but
the high waters have subsided in 20 of these, officials said. Bangkok
has been on standby but has so far avoided major flooding.
earlier related report
Four dead, 50,000 displaced in Malaysia floods: reports
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) Nov 5, 2010 - Four people have been killed and
almost 50,000 have been forced out of their homes and into relief camps
as floods hit northern Malaysia, state media said Friday.
Rising waters have hit three Malaysian states on the border with
Thailand, which has also been seriously affected.
An airport and a major highway have been closed, and train services and
water supplies have also been disrupted by Malaysia's worst floods in
five years.
The first fatalities were a 13-year-old boy and a 64-year-old German
woman whose bodies were recovered in Kedah state earlier this week.
The bodies of two girls who fell into an irrigation canal in Kedah were
recovered Thursday, state news agency Bernama said, and another two
children who disappeared while playing in a flooded padi field were
feared drowned.
Bernama said that nearly 50,000 people have now been taken to relief
centres to escape the floods in Perlis, Kedah and Kelantan states.
Prime Minister Najib Razak urged flood victims and residents in the
affected areas to be cautious.
"Don't treat this lightly, don't treat this as a carnival because the
disaster can lead to fatalities," he said according to Bernama.