Flooding continues in Thai North

SUKHOTHAI, September 10 (TNA) - Flooding has continued in many northern Thai provinces, particularly in Sukhothai, where floodwater has become deeper in the heart of the province. Local workers hurriedly placed 50 big sandbags weighing more than one ton each to repair a dyke Monday morning, after floodwater penetrated into the Muang Sukhothai Municipality late Sunday night. The task has not yet been achieved, as flood currents are too strong, causing the floodwater to have been expanding throughout the municipality, with four schools having been closed, and prompting about 100 soldiers of the 3rd Army Area Command to have been evacuating flooded areas. The Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, meanwhile, reported that the flooding in Sukhothai has resulted from the rising Yom River, which flows from Phrae Province in the Upper Thai North and from a 10-meter-long damaged dyke. The floodwater from the Yom River has also been expanding to communities and farmlands in Bang Rakam District of nearby Phitsanulok Province. But the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation insisted that the situation has been controllable although about 1,100 households in the flood-affected areas have been evacuated. In adjacent Pichit Province, Khlong Noenkum and other local canals which adjoin the Nan River are overflowing to vast areas of local farmlands, including paddy fields which approach harvest.(TNA)