Record flooding in Hat Yai forces evacuations

RED-FLAG WARNING FOR 103 AT-RISK COMMUNITIES

- POST REPORTERS

TROUBLED WATERS: Residents wade through floodwater near Hat Yai's Kim Yong Market. Heavy rainfall over the past three days has triggered severe flooding and put 103 communities at risk. Authorities are scrambling to open evacuation centres and emergency kitchens to support more evacuees.

Heavy rainfall over the past three days has triggered severe flooding across wide areas of Hat Yai — the economic hub of southern Thailand — prompting authorities to issue a red-flag warning for all 103 at-risk communities and urge residents to evacuate immediately to designated safe zones.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who was in Khon Kaen delivering policy directives to district chiefs and local administrators, cut short his schedule and prepared to fly to Hat Yai yesterday afternoon to assess the situation.

The deluge, which has brought the southern district of Songkhla to a near standstill, has also left an estimated 9,000-10,000 tourists — mostly Malaysian nationals — stranded in hotels with limited access to food and transportation.