RISING WATERS
POST REPORTERS
Floods have claimed the lives of three more people, including one boy, in Ayutthaya province. Elephants used for tourist rides in historical parks have also been moved away from the flood waters to safer areas.
Suchat Permsuwat, 53, drowned after he was swept away by a strong current in an irrigation canal in Phachi district.
In Lat Bua Luang district Rak Montrilertchai, 59, became exhausted while moving his belongings to higher ground, fell into a flooded paddy field and drowned.
Thaweechai Butraksa, a second-grade pupil at Wat Pradu Songtham in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district, died while swimming in flood water with friends.
Four people have now drowned in the floods in Ayutthaya province
The swollen Lop Buri river prompted the relocation of elephants from the historical parks, as parts of the kraal in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district were already submerged.
They were moved to Phra Srisuriyothai park and private land in the district, said kraal owner Laitongrian Mipan.
The elephants' food supply is also threatened as farms supplying feed are flooded.
Wichian Puanglamjiak, leader of Ayutthaya farmers' group, said the rapid rate of water released from the Chao Phraya dam in Chai Nat has worsened floods in downstream provinces. Riverside communities had little time to prepare for the flash flood, he said.
Dam operators were also accused of not revealing the actual release rate.
Yesterday the rate was at 2,300 cubic metres a second, the Irrigation Department said.
''Large amounts of water flowing down from the North will raise the rate to 2,800 cu m a second,'' said deputy department chief Veera Wongsaengnark,
Bangkok would be spared severe flooding if the rate stayed below 3,000 cu m a second, but riverside communities in Chai Nat, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya and Sing Buri should brace for flash floods.
In Sing Buri, education officials closed seven schools in In Buri district as the flood level continued to rise.
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