Water, water everywhere

Traffic on a section of the Asian Highway in Ayutthaya is paralysed after the road was submerged by overflow from the Lop Buri River yesterday. The scene was captured during a helicopter survey by the Air Force’s Civil Affairs Department. SURAPOL PROMSAKA NA SAKOLNAKORN

By Terry Fredrickson

Ayuttaya has become the focus of a flood disaster that seems to be getting worse and worse without an end in sight.

Ayutthaya disaster worsens

Main highway to North swamped, jail evacuated

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Flood misery worsened in Ayutthaya yesterday as more water surged through damaged flood walls, forcing the closure of the country's vital highway to the North and the evacuation of the provincial prison.

Hundreds of vehicles including passenger buses, cargo trucks and private cars were trapped in a 10-kilometre traffic snarl-up after flood waters flowed over a section of the Asian Highway in the province.

The higher water level has also made several areas in the province a sea of swirling water, inaccessible by state authorities who were struggling yesterday to keep the inner area of the town dry.

A dog is carried by its owner through the flooded Rojana Road near the Asian Highway in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district of Ayutthaya. TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD

Ayutthaya governor Witthaya Piewpong said a huge volume of water from the Lop Buri, Pasak and Chao Phraya rivers will raise the water level in the province by at least another 50cm during the next three to seven days.

Local officials were ordered yesterday to double the height of flood walls around the centre of Ayutthaya to one metre. Town residents were warned, however, they should move their belongings to higher ground and be ready to evacuate.

Mr Witthaya said more than 60 per cent of the town's flood wall had been damaged by the flood currents and efforts were under way yesterday to repair the embankment.

Pol Col Adirek Plangdee, a local highway police chief, said he had ordered the closure of a section of the Asian Highway in Bang Pahan district of Ayutthaya after flood water flowed over traffic lanes and caused traffic to back up for 10km.

Motorists were redirected around the section.

The flooding on the Asian Highway in Bang Pahan district forced state-owned Transport Co to suspend all its northern-bound buses for three hours yesterday afternoon.

North-bound trains from Bangkok could only travel to Ayutthaya. Trains to the Northeast had to go through Chachoengsao instead of passing through Ayutthaya.

The sudden surge in the water level also forced the Corrections Department to evacuate all 1,700 inmates in the provincial jail to nearby prisons in Lop Buri, Sing Buri, Chai Nat and Pathum Thani provinces as well as Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok.

The increased water level also forced Bang Pahan Hospital to close yesterday. The Public Health Ministry is operating two field hospitals in Ayutthaya.

In Bangkok, heavy rains in the northern part of the capital caused floods on Chaeng Watthana Road in front of the government complex, Vibhavadi Rangsit Road in front of Yakult Co and Ram Intra Road at Laksi roundabout from late on Wednesday night to early yesterday morning.

Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the floods on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road were as deep as 70cm because water pumps near the Bang Khen canal broke down.

City Hall was now concerned that Bangkok's eastern district would be hit by overflows from the North.

You can read previous article at www.bangkokpost.com/learning/all-article.