More than 500 residents are being evacuated in the border tourist district of Sangkhla Buri in Kanchanaburi where two tambons have been declared flood-struck, according to the provincial governor.
Governor Jirasak Phumsawat said yesterday urgent evacuation plans were being drawn up in Ban Saneh Pong in tambon Laiwo, as well as Ban Huai Kob, Ban Huai Malai and Ban Songgaria in tambon Long Lu, which are all under five metres of water.
All roads to the villages have been cut off by the rising floods. The tambon Laiwo administration organisation office will be opened as temporary shelter for evacuees, Mr Jirasak said.
The provincial office on Friday declared the two tambons disaster areas.
Mr Jirasak said he has ordered authorities to keep a close watch of Uttamanusorn bridge, more commonly known as Saphan Mon bridge, over the next two days as flood water is threatening to destabilise it.
Specially-modified pickup trucks, with raised chassis, were used to transport patients from the main Sangkhla Hospital to a better-equipped hospital in downtown Muang district which is relatively safe from flooding.
The vehicles were able to pass through the flooded Ban Pong-Three Pagodas Pass which was under 1.2 metres of water yesterday.
The flood also damaged the Saneh Pong forest reserve office in the western Thungyai Naresuan wildlife protection forest complex.
As the flood in the forest zone eased yesterday, officials inspected the reserve office and living quarters to find them filled with muddy water which also destroyed work equipment.
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said Sangkhla was the district hardest hit by floods in Kanchanaburi with more than 300 rai of farmland ravaged by tropical storm Son-Tinh.
Chayapol Thitisak, the department chief, said the storm has triggered flash floods, water runoff and landslides in 17 districts in 11 provinces -- Phichit, Nakhon Sawan, Trat, Phrae, Phetchabun, Phitsanulok, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Tak, Ranong, Phetchaburi and Kanchanaburi.
More rain and rough weather are forecast for the North, the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.