Three dead and nearly 400 houses damaged in violent Thailand summer storms

Violent summer storms wreaked havoc in three northeastern provinces killing three people.

Power lines were brought down and many roads blocked as dozens of trees came down damaging nearly four hundred properties in Sakhon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom and Uttaradit in devastating summer storms on Friday, reports Thairath.

The whole of Lap Lae district, Uttaradit, suffered a power outage that lasted hours. Many vehicles were damaged by large hailstones.

Two people were killed when a tree fell on a house in Phupan district of Sakhon Nakorn while a farmer was struck by lightning in Nakhon Phanom when he was sheltering from rain under a tree.

Authorities reported that some 261 houses in eleven districts of Sakhon Nakorn were damaged. Fallen trees blocked a 26 kilometer stretch of the Sakhon Nakorn – Kalasin road from kilometer 14 to 40. It was reopened by nine pm after several hours of disruption to traffic. In one district hailstones of one centimeter in size damage many vehicles out in the open.

In Nakorn Panom more than 100 houses in three districts were damaged, ten seriously. Officials there described it as the worst storm in a year. Fifty six year old Bunpaeng Banharn of Tha Khor district out tending his field was struck by lightning as he sheltered under a tree from heavy rains.

His death prompted authorities to warn people caught in the open to seek shelter in houses and not under trees in electrical storms.

In Uttaradit the Lap Lae district suffered a total power cut as many trees brought down lots of power poles. Minor damage was reported to properties in that province.

Thai Visa / Thairath

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