Rescuers get provisions into flooded Prachuab Khiri Khan district

Army and rescue workers, loaded up with ready-made foods and drinking water, were visiting villages behind Chong Lom dam in Bang Saphan Noi district of Prachuab Khiri Khan yesterday after the area was cut off from the outside world.

The only road into the district was flooded and had become impassable.

Rescuers responded to a distress alert from Amporn Thaokruamat, village head of Village 8 in Tambon Chang Rak where residents of 70 households have been trapped in their village and are unable to get out to get food, drinking water and other necessities.

Thai PBS reports that the rescuers travelled in four-wheel drive vehicles up to a certain distance and then trekked through rubber plantations to reach the village with their supplies of ready-made food and bottled drinking water for the residents.

Rain has stopped in Bang Saphan and Bang Saphan Noi districts on Saturday but severl areas still remain flooded as backhoes of the Royal Irrigation Department stepped up dredging operation to widen the mouth of Klong Bang Saphan to facilitate the flow of excess water into the sea.

Water level in Klong Bang Saphan has lowered to about 15 centimetres below the edge of both banks of the klong, hence, causing flood water to recede at Bang Saphan hospital, the market and the railway station.

Water level at several small reservoirs in the district has returned to normal.

ORIGINAL STORY: Thai PBS