Elderly stranded alone for days by floods

Elderly stranded alone for days by floods

Suk Taothuen, 79, sits patiently outside an upstairs window at his flooded house in Chaturat district in Chaiyaphum on Wednesday, as relief supplies finally reach him. (Photo by Makkawan Wannakul)
Suk Taothuen, 79, sits patiently outside an upstairs window at his flooded house in Chaturat district in Chaiyaphum on Wednesday, as relief supplies finally reach him. (Photo by Makkawan Wannakul)

Grandfather Suk was stranded alone without adequate food or clean water after the flood reached his house in Chaiyaphum, one of the northeastern provinces hit by flooding.

Suk Taothuen is 79-years-old and lives alone in his house in Chaturat district. His life was made miserable when the Lahan reservoir overflowed and flooded Ban Moo 2 last weekend.

Help did not arrive until Wednesday, when a boat from the tambon Bung Lahan administration organisation finally reached him with much needed food and clean water.

"I did not have enough food to eat and was alone in my two-storey house," Mr Suk said.

Mr Suk was not the only elderly person in the village stranded by the floodwaters.

Chusee Ku, 69, and seven members of her family were also isolated, hoping for the relief supplies which finally arrived on Wednesday.

The toilet was unusable and the floodwater was now polluted, she said with a grimmace.

Red Cross officials were helping both families.

Chaturat is the worst-hit district in Chaiyaphum, but Bamnet Narong, Ban Khwao and Muang districts are also inundated.

More than 1,000 houses remain flooded, with the water between 50 centimetres and one metre deep, according to  governor Chusak Treesarn.

However, Chaiyuphum is surprisingly not on the list of flooded provinces identified by the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.

Hardest-hit of all is still Sakon Nakhon province, where the municipality and other districts were swamped by runoff on Friday.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was asked by the province during his visit to Muang district in Sakon Nakhon on Wednesday to provide extra funding so the municipality could buy more pumps to help drain off the water into lake Nong Han.

Work crews have begun repairing Huay Sai Khamin reservoir in Muang district. The embankment was damaged when the strong flood current spilled over into it.

Repairs are expected to completed by mid-August, according to a government announcment.

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