Thailand’s navy will deploy an aircraft carrier to the flood-stricken south, as public outcry mounts over the government’s response to a crisis that has hit about 2 million people and left an entire southern city under water.
Heavy late monsoon rains, compounded by the La Nina climate pattern, have battered Southeast Asia for weeks, with scores killed in floods and landslides in central Vietnam and Thailand, and floods now striking south into Malaysia.
Five days of continuous rains have pounded the south of Thailand, where the province of Songkhla has been declared a disaster zone and its capital Hat Yai, a city of about 200,000 and a popular getaway for Malaysian tourists, submerged.
The floods rose rapidly on Friday, when the city saw 13 inches (330mm) of rain – the heaviest single-day rains in recorded history. The downpours have not relented since, driving the brown floodwaters to second and third storeys of buildings, covering Buddhist temples and forcing residents to take shelter under umbrellas on rooftops.
Stranded residents have shared on social media desperate pleas for rescue, explaining they have gone days without fresh food, water and power.
