Severe flooding continues in South, trains disrupted

More than 130,000 households in seven southern provinces have been hit by floods following downpours that are forecast to continue in many areas until Dec 3.
Heavy rain continues to pound all southern provinces along the Gulf of Thailand, and many train services have been suspended due to flooded tracks between Pattani and Yala.
The weather office issued another warning on Thursday about downpours until Sunday in eight provinces: Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. This could further exacerbate flooding.
Water levels in key southern rivers — Pattani, Saiburi, Kolok and Tanyongmas — are forecast to rise significantly in the coming days, overflowing the banks and surging by 1.5 to 2 metres, said Thanaroj Woraratprasert, director of the National Water Administration Center at the Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR).
The accumulated rainfall in vast areas of the South has been substantial, with Narathiwat recording the highest rainfall over the past seven days, totalling 1,100 millimetres.
On Tuesday alone, the province recorded 502mm of rain, followed by Pattani at 492mm and Yala at 405mm. Local officials in Yala said the floods were the worst in three decades.
Rainfall, however, is predicted to ease toward Dec 4. After that, water levels in flooded areas are set to gradually recede.
Flood water that accumulated from Tuesday to Wednesday is now flowing out to sea.
The ONWR has taken various measures to tackle the flood crisis, including preparing equipment for rescue and relief operations, establishing evacuation centres and offering assistance with utilities.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Traisuree Traisaranakul said the heavy rainfall in the South has caused widespread flooding over a relatively short period of time. Landslide alerts have also been issued in communities close to mountains.
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) reported ongoing flooding in seven southern provinces, affecting 50 districts, 321 tambons and 1,884 villages in which 136,219 families live.
Tens of thousands more families are struggling to cope with floods in other districts in the region.
Racing against time, the DDPM has collaborated with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and mobile network providers to issue flood warnings via mobile SMS to residents in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
Santi Pailoplee, a professor of geology at Chulalongkorn University, said a lot more rainfall has triggered the southern floods than those that damaged Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai recently.
If the same volume had hit the upper North, the floods there would have been 10 times worse, he said.
So far, threats to people’s lives have been limited in the South as few communities live precariously close to waterways or flood-prone locations, the academic added.
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) said on Thursday that all trains to Yala and Sungai Kolok stations are now stopping at Hat Yai in Songkhla, except for local trains 463 and 464, which run between Phatthalung and Sungai Kolok, stopping at Thepa station in Songkhla.
The service disruption was due to flooding on the tracks between Mai Kaen station in Pattani and Raman in Yala.
The SRT advised travellers to keep monitoring the latest developments.
Southern trains to Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang and Phatthalung have not been affected by the extreme weather.