Thai floods kill 170 people

Thai floods kill 170 people

BANGKOK (Reuters): Monsoon floods in northern Thailand over
the last three weeks have killed 170 people, displaced 6,661
villagers, and devastated thousands of houses and roads, the
Interior Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said in a statement flooding brought by tropical
storm Usagi had wreaked havoc on 35 provinces since Aug. 10. The
hardest-hit area was the province of Phetchabun where 126 people
drowned or were swept away by mud slides.

The authorities estimated the flooding caused 1.15 billion
baht (US$26 million) worth of damage, and affected about 200,000
hectares of farmland in the central and northern regions.

The ministry said other badly hit provinces were northeast
Udon Thani and northern Chiang Mai where 13 and eight people were
killed respectively.

In Phnom Penh, five Cambodian children drowned when a boat
they were rowing through flood waters capsized, bringing the
flood death toll to 22 with some 400,000 people left homeless,
officials said on Monday.