The first day of the year is not one to celebrate for many in the southernmost provinces who began 2015 underwater from three weeks of flooding.
Flooding has receded in many parts of the region, but 1,830 villages in Phatthalung, Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces remain flooded since mid-December when torrential rain hammered their homes for more than a week in the worst storms in more than two decades, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said Thursday.
Tourists wait for the first sunrise of the year at the Phu Cheefah National Park in Chiang Rai province on Thursday morning. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
Innundated area included several locations along the Sungai Kolok River in Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat, which recorded water levels up to 80 centimetres. Officials were trying to drain the overflow to the Gulf of Thailand.
The situation in all flooded areas, including Sungai Kolok, one of the hardest-hit districts, could return to normal within days, the department forecast.
The Meteorological Department issued a statement on Thursday that rain would be scattered in only some areas in Phatthalung, but warned of seas with four-metre swells in the Gulf of Thailand from Nakhon Si Thammarat to Narathiwat.
Sungai Kolok mayor Suchada Phannara said 373 people had to stay at a shelter provided by the border-town municipality until homes are safe for them to return.
Sareema Salamae is one of those displaced.
She said she celebrated the new year with five members of her family at the shelter and expected repairs of her house at Tha Kor Phai community in the district after the flood receded.
Elsewhere, revellers in the northern and northeastern regions enjoyed the first light of the year, especially at popular national parks which also were flooded... this time by tourists.
Sanit Homnan, the Phu Cheefah National Park chief in Thoeng district in Chiang Rai province, said 27,895 visitors packed the park on Thursday to see the sunrise at 6.57am.
More than 20,000 tourists waited at Pha Taem in Ubon Rathchathani's Khong Chiam district since 4am to wait for the first sunrise of 2015 in Thailand which emerged at 6.20am. Pha Taem is the easternmost location in the country.
The weather bureau said temperatures will drop by four degrees from Thursday to the weekend in the northern and northeastern regions.
Temperatures in the upper part of the two regions hovered around 15 degrees and dropped to around five degrees in the mountains, it added.