[seperalem]

More than 6,400 killed in disasters
Road accidents rank top with 6,300 lives

Bangkok Post, September 15, 2004

Disasters claimed more than 6,400 lives and caused damage totalling about 1.8 billion baht in the kingdom in the first eight months of this year.

Road accidents ranked top with about 6,300 deaths, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said.

Department chief Pongpayome Wasaphuti said 11 kinds of disasters left 6,457 dead and 39,242 others injured nationwide, and caused damage worth 1.818 billion baht during January and August this year.

He was speaking on Monday at a meeting of the national civil defence committee, the city administration, and the Meteorological, Irrigation, Water Resources, and Disaster Prevention and Mitigation departments.

Road accidents resulted in the largest death toll, followed by sabotage attacks, fire accidents, storms, floods, chemical accidents, earthquakes, building collapses, drought, cold weather, hailstorms, and forest fires.

In the first half of this year, 6,316 people were killed and 39,122 others injured in 35,030 road accidents throughout the country except Bangkok.

Sabotage attacks in eight provinces left 54 people dead and 91 others injured and caused around 1.18 million baht in damage, while fire accidents in 67 provinces including Bangkok killed 37 people, affected 10,389 others and caused damage totalling 560.48 million baht.

Storms killed 26 people and affected 138,868 others throughout the country, while floods in 41 provinces claimed 19 lives, affected about 1.42 million others and caused 357.6 million baht in damage.

Chemical accidents in 16 provinces including Bangkok left 3 people dead and 18 others injured, while earthquakes and building collapses in Samut Sakhon and Satun provinces killed two people and injured 11 others, and caused damage to a department store and two other commercial buildings.

The four other types of disasters affected millions of people but caused no human casualties. Drought affected more than 8.3 million people in 64 provinces and damaged about 1.48 million rai of farmland.

Cold weather affected about 1.24 million people in 32 provinces. Hailstorms affected 16,447 people in 7 provinces and caused 12.82 million baht in property damage, while forest fires affected 49 people and damaged 860 rai of farmland in five provinces.

At Monday's meeting, Dusadee Sarikkabutr, deputy chief of the Meteorological Department, said provincial authorities throughout the country have been advised to follow weather reports closely and pay special heed to the department's three-day warnings about tropical storms expected to pass through the kingdom from the middle of this month until December.

These storms could cause flash floods in the South and the East and very cold weather in the upper North and Northeast.

The Water Resources Department said it was confident it would soon finish installing alarm systems in all flood-prone areas throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the city administration said the construction of new flood dykes, drainage canals and pipes in Bangkok was already 90% completed. The rest of the work would be finished by 2008.