BANGKOK, Oct 3 — Prime Minsiter Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday has ordered agencies concerned to prepare response measures for tropical storm Gaemi that will impact Thailand over the weekend.
The premier said she has instructed the authorities to release water retained in dams upstream and to clean up the Bangkok drainage system, even as she asserted that the government would fully help the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) and the surrounding provinces to drain water in case of heavy rain from the storm. More pumps will be installed to help drain water more quickly.
She said Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt is assigned to oversee traffic in Bangkok and adjacent areas to ease the heavy traffic after the rain.
The Meteorological Department has issued its eighth warning on tropical cyclone Gaemi that as of 4am today is in the mid-South China Sea, centered about 880km east of Da Nang, Vietnam with maximum sustained winds of about 75km/hr. The storm is moving east-southeast at about 10km/hr.
The weather agency said the storm is expected to make landfall over central Vietnam on Friday and saturday, and will affect on Thailand on the following days.
Meanwhile the stronger southwest monsoon prevails over the Andaman Sea, the South and the Gulf of Thailand. These will cause torrential rain in some places of the lower North, Northeast, Central, Eastern and upper Southern regions of the country.
