Culture Minister Sukumol Kunplome (center)
talks to the press as she inspects flood afflicted areas in Chonburi.
CPRD
Culture Minister Sukumol Kunplome inspected damage and handed
out relief packages to 600 Phanatnikhom District families affected by
last month’s record flooding.
Chonburi Gov. Wichit Chatpaisit accompanied the minister on her Sept. 29
tour, distributing bags of food and supplies donated equally by the Thai
Red Cross, Prevention and Relief Office, and provincial government.
Wichit said Chonburi has been declared a flood-disaster area, with all
of its 604 houses, 6,263 acres of farmland, 39 roads, two bridges, and a
dam affected by the Sept. 11 monsoon and its aftermath. A Sept. 27 flood
in Bung and Phanatnikhom districts caused by a breach in a Huay Yai
canal exacerbated damage to farms there.
Phanatnikhom officials, faced with a half-meter of water in areas
affected by the canal breach, laid sandbags and alerted drivers to
high-water risks. Wichit ordered his deputy to offer 70 more relief
packages in that area and provincial workers to fix water impellers at
the Chon Prathan Pangthong Canal and Hua Phai Bridge to quickly send
water into the Bangpakong River.