Government Spokesman Maj- General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the prime minister had told agencies to quickly deliver aid to victims. That included setting up barriers to prevent water intruding onto their properties or evacuations when needed.
Sansern said the Phetchaburi governor gave Prayut an update on the situation yesterday and the Agriculture Ministry would soon explain a water-management plan to the public.
“The prime minister is concerned about the situation, and has given orders to some concerned agencies directly so that his instructions can help people as quickly as possible,” he said.
Phetchaburi has been inundated since Monday night after the Royal Irrigation Department announced that there had been excessive rainfall in watershed areas upstream the previous week, which caused overflows of rainwater into dams, including Phetch Dam.
Officials later had to release water into the Phetchaburi River, resulting in flooding in the town and overflows in some areas.
The flood was 50 centimetres to one metre high in some parts of the town. This caused officials to ask the Irrigation department to cut the amount of water being discharged from Phetch Dam.
As of yesterday, the amount of water discharged from the dam was cut from 250 cubic metres per second to 150 cu m per second. Excess water – 100 cu m per second – had to be diverted into irrigated areas upstream before it reached the Phetch Dam to reduce its burden.
Officials said if there was no rain upstream the situation would return to normal in the next few days.
However, the flooding in Ban Laem district remained critical, as that is where water accumulates before going into the sea. It was hoped that if officials continued to lower the water discharge from the dam, the situation would soon return to normal.
The Meteorological Department had reported that the Northeast monsoon would bring rain across the South and Gulf, especially Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung provinces.
It said people should beware of the potential for severe weather over the next few days while all ships in the Gulf should proceed with caution and small boats should stay ashore.
Meanwhile, Pornthep Pong-opas, director of a meteorological station in Loei in the Northeast, said yesterday that temperatures had cooled in all districts. The temperature in Muang district had dropped to 19.7 degrees Celsius, while it was just 11C on the Mt Phu Rua.
Phu Rua National Park chief Ronnapop Katchamat said the park had experienced cool weather for three days running.
And he expected more visitors to descend on the area this weekend because of this.
He said park officials had prepared services to accommodate more visitors including setting up 300 tents for rent.