Flash floods batter Korat

Nakhon Ratchasima and its provincial capital have been ravaged as flash floods wreak havoc in the Northeast and Central Plains following heavy weekend monsoon rains.

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.

Sourced=bangkokpost