**More rain brings flood, death in the south
**
Bangkok Post (22 December 2005)
NAKHON SI THAMMARAT, Dec 22 (TNA) – Torrential overnight rain has brought more misery and one more death to the flood-affected southern provinces.
The flooding has worsened in a number of areas, including Narathiwat, Surat Thani, Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Vijit Chanpakdi, 46, a villager at Ta-ngew sub-district in Nakhon Si Thammarat was found dead on Thursday morning after the motorcycle he was riding plunged into a flooded roadside ditch.
Earlier, also in Nakhon Si Thammarat, a fishing boat capsized while sailing on the bay in Sichon district. Two crew members survived three hours in the water before being rescued.
Nakhon Si Thammarat has been hit hard by three rounds of floods over two months, with wide areas of the province inundated. More than 270, 000 people have been affected and more than 200 thousand rais (about 32,000 hectares) of farmland damaged. The overall damage bill has been put at 125 million baht.
Heavy rain has also caused the Sungai-Kolok River in Narathiwat to overflow, submerging at least 400 homes in the districts of Waeng, Sungai-Kolok and Takbai and badly damaging the bridge across the river.
Meanwhile, forest mudslides have blocked some routes in Sukirin district, prompting parents to withdraw their children from nearby schools for fear that the landslips would make all major roads impassable.
The Marine Office in Surat Thani province on Thursday ordered a halt to all small boat traffic to Pangan Island due to strong winds and waves.
In Songkhla, Agricultural Minister Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, chairing the meeting of the agricultural ministry’s agencies on Thursday morning, ordered an urgent relief operation to help local farmers whose land and crops had been damaged by the floods.