Kajiki made landfall as a typhoon in Vietnam earlier this week, killing seven people, inundating more than 10,000 homes and offices as well as 86 hectares of rice and cash crops, the Vietnam government said on Wednesday.
In Thailand, flooding and landslides hit 12 provinces in the North and Northeast, including Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son, affecting more than 6,300 people and 1,800 households, the disaster mitigation agency reported.
Four people in Chiang Mai died in a landslide, and another person drowned in Mae Hong Son, the Interior Ministry said.
Fifteen others were injured in Chiang Mai, with another five buried in landslides and two swept away by floodwaters, reports the Bangkok Post.
Dusit Pongsapipat, disaster mitigation chief of Chiang Mai, said the search for those missing focused on the locations where bodies of other victims were found. The disaster happened in Ban Pang Ung village in tambon Mae Suek at about 3am on Wednesday.
Workers were removing debris from the landslide to reopen roads and prepare for other rehabilitation activity including the repair of damaged houses. The operation continued throughout Wednesday night amid steady rain that started to ease yesterday morning.
The military installed Bailey bridges to restore access to several villages that were isolated earlier. Local people, meanwhile, are still dealing with the shock caused by Wednesday’s landslide, which resulted from heavy rains brought by a low-pressure system following Storm Kajiki.
Flooding caused by the storm persisted in eight provinces, mostly in the North, said Saharat Wongsakulwiwat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. The provinces were Chiang Mai, Lampang, Loei, Mae Hong Son, Nakhon Phanom, Phetchabun, Phrae and Uttaradit, and nearly 6,000 people in 1,600 households were affected.
He said rainfall was declining but concern remains about deluges flowing through waterways towards more downstream provinces.
The destruction marked the second time this year when northern Thailand was battered by typhoon remnants, after Wutip in June swept in from southern China.