Yala floods recede as rain eases

Yala floods recede as rain eases

New high pressure zone from China to bring more rain

Residents in Yala gained temporary relief from the monsoon flooding as the rain eased off and water levels fell.

In Yala on Friday, floods covered just two districts, Muang Yala and Raman, instead of eight as earlier.

From Dec 17 to 25, flooding and a landslide killed three people, injured two others and damaged 37 houses, three community hospitals, 27 schools, four mosques and 13,265 rai, or over 20 square kilometres, of farmland.

The disaster affected over 97,000 people and caused the closure of 40 schools there.

The Meteorological Department reported that the high pressure area from China had weakened, so the northeast monsoon was now bringing less rain to the far South.

It warned that another powerful high pressure zone would influence the region from Sunday to next Wednesday and could bring further heavy rain.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha visited flood victims in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat on Friday. Before his trip, he said this year's rains were unusually heavy in the South, dumping 1,000 millimetres on the region in only 10 days, compared with the normal 1,500 millimetres per year.

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