Other districts in Chiang Mai put preventive measures in place, such as piling up 10,000 sandbags alongside a brimming river in Mae Chaem and warning residents to move belongings to higher ground.

The moves follow warnings by weather officials that much of the North, Northeast and Central region will be hit by heavy rains over the coming week.

Mae Sa waterfall unit head Somsak Butrchui said he ordered the temporary closure after water at the falls rose by two metres after torrential downpours. A similar precaution was taken at Tad Mok falls.

Chiang Mai disaster prevention and mitigation chief Pairin Limcharoen said downpours on Sunday caused flooding at various districts including Mae On’s Tambon Huai Kaew, Mae Chaem’s three tambons – Chang Kherng, Mae Seuk and Tha Pha – while mountainous Chom Thong district was placed on alert for possible landslides.

Mae Chaem district chief Tossapol Pheun-udom said three tambons were hit by 10cm deep floodwater although all roads were still passable.

In Nan’s Dok Kham Tai district, a flash flood swamped homes and farms in four tambons with water up to a metre-deep yesterday, prompting officials to alert residents in the downstream Muang Dok Kham Tai municipal area to move belongings to higher ground.

In Muang district in Phayao, heavy rain triggered a flood that hit homes in tambons Mae Tan, Mae Na Rua and Mae Pim, while some sections of road were under 70cm of water at 3pm yesterday.

Muang Phayao Municipality mayor Chulasinee Phrompao said officials were sent to help residents move belongings to higher ground and a temporary shelter was set up at the Municipality 4 School.

In Mae Hong Son, officials in Muang and Khun Yuam districts told residents in riverside and low-lying areas to be prepared to evacuate their homes as authorities expected a large amount of rain and flash floods had already inundated farmland. The Pai River was at 2.4 metres in the morning and inching towards the critical point of 3.5 metres.

Lampang in Koh Kha district saw river overflows hit Ban Mae Pang village in Tambon Mai Pattana. Six homes were damaged by the flood. In Ban Hong district in Lamphun, over 100 homes in several tambons were flooded early yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department warned yesterday that the tropical depression in the South China Sea would move toward Danang, Vietnam, last night and pass over the mid-Northeast of Thailand and then the Central and northern regions today.

Residents in Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, Amnat Charoen, Ubon Ratchathani, Surin, Buri Ram, Si Sa Ket, Roi Et, Kalasin, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Ratchasima, Prachin Buri, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi, Trat, Ranong, Phang Nga, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Phrae, Nan, Uttaradit, Phitsanulok and Phetchabun were warned to brace for heavy rains from today until next Monday and follow weather updates.

In Udon Thani in the Northeast, workers used backhoes in Muang district yesterday to dig a 500-metre-long canal to temporarily drain water and prevent Mitraparp Highway from being flooded.

In Ubon Ratchathani, Governor Somsak Jangtrakul held an urgent meeting with agencies and instructed chiefs of all 25 districts to advise residents of the incoming severe weather.

The Mul River rose by 23 centimetres yesterday to 10.5 metres. But officials at Sirindhorn Dam, currently at 55 per cent capacity, said it could support a further 900 million cubic metres of water.

In Kalasin’s Yang Talad district, farmers in Tambon Bua Ban urged authorities to solve the issue of repeated floods from encroachment in Dong Ranaeng Forest, which damaged many fish and shrimp farms as well as rice fields on August 25.