Severe floods displace thousands in Thailand and Malaysia, at least 8 killed

[BANGKOK/KUALA LUMPUR] Flooding from days of intense rain has killed at least eight people in southern Thailand, and forced thousands into evacuation centres in neighbouring Malaysia, officials said on Monday (Nov 24).

The authorities have ramped up their efforts to provide shelter and aid.

The floodwater was waist-high in some areas, which has affected 10 provinces in southern Thailand and eight states in Malaysia, which includes regions spanning hundreds of kilometres. They were also hit hard last year by flooding from a seasonal monsoon that killed at least 12 people.

Thailand’s southern trading hub Hat Yai on Friday suffered its heaviest single-day rainfall in more than 300 years, said the irrigation department. The weekend television footage showed people wading through brown water in the teeming rain in commercial areas, where shops and parked motorcycles were engulfed by water.

Some residents were seen pulling children along in plastic boxes turned into makeshift boats, while in the city’s outskirts, parked trucks and buses formed long lines along the few dry roads available as other vehicles inched slowly through water.

Hundreds of vehicles and boats deployed

The eight deaths in Thailand were caused mainly by electrocution and other flood-related accidents, said authorities.

Thailand has mobilised hundreds of boats and high-clearance vehicles to deliver aid, the disaster agency said. It added that at least 700,000 households were affected by the disaster since last week.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered more water pumping machines to be deployed and said assistance must be adequate, comprehensive and timely, based on a government statement.

In Malaysia, more than 15,000 people were in shelters, with 90 evacuation centres set up, based on Social Welfare Department data. No deaths have been reported so far in Malaysia.

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Its Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said civil defence teams were on standby with more than 90 land and water assets mobilised, including lorries, four-wheeled-drive vehicles and water-rescue equipment.

“I pray and hope that this incident will not cause extensive damage, and that all victims remain strong and patient,” he said in an X post.

Central Vietnam floods ease after killing 91

Water levels have started to recede in central Vietnam, after weeklong flooding and landslides killed 91 people and caused infrastructure damage, which left 1.1 million households and businesses without power, the government said on Monday.

Initial property damage was estimated at 13 trillion dong (S$642.9 million) it said, adding that it has disbursed cash aid and 4,000 tons of rice to flood victims.

More than 200,000 houses, 200,000 hectares of crops, and 1,157 hectares of fish farms were inundated in Vietnam. The floods submerged several coffee farms in the central highlands, an area highly prone to storms and flooding, hampering the harvest in the region. REUTERS