Death toll in Thailand flooding jumps to 25

Death toll in Thailand flooding jumps to 25
by AFP Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) Dec 3, 2024
Thousands of people have been displaced by torrential floodwaters that slammed into southern Thailand, where the death toll has risen to 25, officials said on Tuesday.

Flooding since November 22 has affected more than 660,000 homes in the kingdom's south, the country's disaster agency said on its Facebook page.

Suwas Bin-Uma, a chicken farm owner in Songkhla province, told state broadcaster Thai PBS that the floods had wiped out his entire flock of more than 10,000 chickens.

"I've lost at least three million baht ($87,000)," he said.

More than 22,000 people have been displaced from their homes due to flooding in Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Yala provinces, the Thai government's public relations department said on Monday.

Footage on social media showed residents in Songkhla province stacking up sandbags in front of their homes on Monday in an attempt to block the swelling floodwater.

The head of a village in Yala province, Abdullah Abu, told local media that flooding in his area had reached up to seven metres (23 feet).

People were receiving one meal a day from a rescue team, he told Channel 7.

In neighbouring Malaysia's Kelantan state, AFP images showed houses surrounded by inundated land and residents scooping water out of their homes.

Malaysian disaster officials said on Tuesday that more than 94,000 people were yet to return to their homes after being evacuated due to the floods, with five people reported dead.

Heavy monsoon rains lash Southeast Asia every year, but human-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay longer over land, according to a study published in July.

- More rain forecast -

Thailand's weather agency forecast more heavy rain for the south until December 5.

On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved a 9,000 baht payment per family to support those affected.

Thailand's northern provinces were hit by heavy floods in early September as Typhoon Yagi swept in from the South China Sea over Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

The storm triggered flooding and landslides across the region and killed hundreds.

One Thai district reported its heaviest inundation in 80 years while the UN's World Food Programme said the floods wrought by Yagi in Myanmar were the worst in the country's recent history.

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