10/10/2013 (press release: JaturontThan) // By Kittima Chanwattanasil
The Royal Thai Army has deployed 4,800 soldiers to help flood victims in 235 districts of 22 provinces. The Army was supported by 145 trucks and 63 flat-bottomed boats, and were mainly busy with moving people from flooded areas to higher ground, as well as filling sandbags and building floodwalls. In addition, the Army has helped in moving and services, transferring daily moving people and goods and helping distribute sandbags to government agencies and private organizations to donate to the flood victims in many areas. Colonel Sirichan Ngathong, the Royal Thai Army deputy spokeswoman, said on October 1, 2013.
General Prayuth Chan-ocha, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, sent orders to the army headquarters to prepare emergency rescue and military equipment, which was quickly distributed to help many people in flood crisis areas. This included trucks and boats from the Army Center of Transportation and the Engineering Department, the cook sets from the Army Quartermaster Department, and medical teams from the Army Medical Department.
In the Kabin Buri, Si Mahapho, Si Mahosot, Prachantakam, and Muang districts of Prachin Buri province, water was reported to be 70cm deep in many town areas; about 600 soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division helpedtransport people save, along with their belongings and domestic animals, to higher ground. Also, the medical teams from Chakrapong Military Hospital have be providing medical care and transferring sick people from flooded areas in Prachin Buri province to hospitals not affected by floods.
In Ban Sang, soldiers have helped build a floodwall along the bank of the Prachin Buri River to protect the municipality from flooding.
In Si Sa Ket province, water from Huay Samran stream is overflowing into many localities in the Muang district, where about 150 soldiers of the 106th Artillery Battalion have been helping people evacuateand distributing survival kits. The Royal Thai Army trucks were also transporting people over a 500-meter flooded section of Highway 226 between the Muang and Uthumphon Phisai districts.
In Surin, about 300 soldiers have been sent to Muang and Samrong Thap districts to evacuate patients from Surin, Sangkha, Samrong Thap, and Si Khoraphum hospitals to nearby hospitals not affected by floods. A temporary evacuation center has been set up inside Wirawat Yothin Military Camp to provide shelter for flood evacuees.
In Bangkok and nearby provinces, the 1st Royal Thai Army has dispatched teams to look out for water levels in communities along the banks of the Chao Phraya River and be ready to send a warning and help people in distress.
