A Buddhist monk and local residents navigate through a flooded street at Wat Mahattamangkalaram Temple in Hat Yai district, Songkhla province, Thailand, on November 30. REUTERS
Thousands of individuals have been forced to leave their homes due to severe floodwaters that have inundated southern Thailand, with the death toll rising to 25, officials reported on Tuesday. Since November 22, over 660,000 homes in the southern region of the kingdom have been affected by the flooding, according to the country's disaster agency on its Facebook page. Suwas Bin-Uma, a chicken farm owner in Songkhla province, informed state broadcaster Thai PBS that the floods had devastated his entire flock of more than 10,000 chickens. "I've lost at least three million baht ($87,000)," he said. More than 22,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla, and Yala provinces, the Thai government's public relations department stated on Monday.
Footage on social media depicted residents in Songkhla province stacking sandbags in front of their homes on Monday in an effort to halt the rising floodwaters. The head of a village in Yala province, Abdullah Abu, told local media that flooding in his area had reached up to 23 feet. People were receiving one meal a day from a rescue team, he informed Channel 7. In neighboring Malaysia's Kelantan state, AFP images showed houses surrounded by inundated land and residents bailing water out of their homes.
A rescue worker delivers bottled water to people staying in flooded houses in Sateng Nok, Yala Province, Thailand, on November 30. REUTERS
Malaysian disaster officials reported on Tuesday that more than 94,000 people had yet to return to their homes after being evacuated due to the floods, with five people confirmed dead. Heavy monsoon rains impact Southeast Asia annually, but human-made climate change is exacerbating more intense weather patterns, increasing the likelihood of destructive floods. A study published in July found that climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify more rapidly, and remain over land for longer periods. Thailand's weather agency forecasts more heavy rain for the south until December 5. On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved a 9,000 baht payment per family to support those affected. Thailand's northern provinces experienced severe flooding in early September as Typhoon Yagi moved in from the South China Sea over Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. The storm triggered widespread flooding and landslides, resulting in hundreds of deaths. One Thai district reported its heaviest inundation in 80 years, while the UN's World Food Programme noted that the floods caused by Yagi in Myanmar were the worst in the country's recent history.
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