Thai Floods

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Tourism Ministry Rushes Supplies to Dozens of Hotels

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2025

 

• The Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports is leading an urgent relief operation for dozens of hotels and tourists stranded by flash floods in Hat Yai District.
• The ministry is coordinating the delivery of essential supplies, including drinking water and prepared meals, to numerous hotels that have been cut off by impassable roads.
• In addition to supplies, authorities are organizing evacuations for hundreds of guests using heavy trucks and boats, with many hotels requesting immediate transport assistance.
• A 24-hour Tourist Assistance Command Centre has been established to manage and process the urgent requests for food and evacuation from the affected hotels.

Emergency command centre established in Hat Yai as flash floods cut off transport routes. Dozens of hotels request urgent food and evacuation support.

The Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports has mobilised an urgent response operation after sudden flash floods in Hat Yai District, Songkhla Province, isolated dozens of hotels, trapping hundreds of tourists and travellers.

Natthriya Thaweevong, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, on Sunday issued immediate orders for all regional ministry personnel to coordinate relief efforts.

The floods have rendered many roads impassable, leaving large numbers of tourists stranded in their accommodation and at the airport.

The Permanent Secretary stressed the need for close coordination with all agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, to secure essential rescue equipment such as heavy trucks and flat-bottomed boats to evacuate people from critical areas.

Teams are also coordinating the delivery of drinking water, prepared meals, and essential supplies.

A Tourist Assistance Command Centre has been established to process the numerous urgent requests received from hotels cut off by the floodwaters.

The list below details the current needs for food and evacuation, as of 23 November 2025:

Hotels Requiring Immediate Evacuation Support

Red Planet: 300 guests need evacuation from the area.

Hatyai Signature: 100 guests need evacuation.

Sakura Hotel Sai 3 (Old Building): Needs 32 food boxes and evacuation for 32 guests.

PS Thung Sao Hotel: Needs 160 food boxes and a boat or vehicle for evacuation of 10 guests to the airport.

ATK Hatyai Hotel: Needs 150 food boxes and transport for 2 passengers to the airport.

The Bed Hatyai Hotel: Evacuation for 30 guests to the airport requested and assistance provided last night.

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November 23, 2025

Hotels Requiring Urgent Food and Supply Support

Jan-Natee Hotel: Needs 250 breakfast boxes.

Urbanli Hatyai Hotel: Needs 60 food boxes (099-629-5396).

Sakura Budget Hotel: Needs 250 food boxes (074-235001).

Sakol Hotel: Needs 180 food boxes (081-444-7524).

Friendytel Hotel: Needs 200 food boxes (081-609-2883).

Sing Golden Place Hotel: Needs 180 food boxes (088-258-9350).

The Lantern Hotel: Needs 100 food boxes (099-402-3666).

Wangnoi Hotel: Needs 150 food boxes (081-351-4956 / 095-463-5945).

Grand Pink and Grand Pink Park: Needs a combined 470 food boxes (093-740-1222).

Aloha Hotel: Needs 280 food boxes (086-481-6087).

Hatyai Golden Crown: Needs 200 food boxes (086-488-7847).

Hatyai Meridian: Has approximately 150 guests (082-542-2463 / 098-465-0261).

Yoo Hatyai Hotel: Needs 70 food boxes (083-179-8838).

V-World Boutique Hotel: Needs 80 food boxes (081-543-9626).

Hi Season Hotel: Needs 150 food boxes (084-080-0008).

Smile Bed Hotel: Needs 150 Muslim food boxes (084-188-8138).

Bestier Hatyai: Needs 150 food boxes (06-5767-8888).

Hoshi Hotel Hatyai: Needs 60 food boxes (082-569-1559 / 085-592-6459).

Kosit Hotel Sai 2: Needs 60 food boxes (086-747-1811).

Pasawang Hotel: Needs 100 food boxes (086-958-8766).

Asian Hotel (Sai 3): Needs 250 food boxes (063-054-8842).

New Season Hotel: Needs 300 food boxes.

Clover Hotel: Needs 100 food boxes (088-050-6224).

To manage the escalating crisis, the Ministry has worked with Hat Yai Municipality to establish a Tourist Assistance Command Centre.

This hub will process all information and coordinate aid requests, operating with staff on duty 24 hours a day as water levels have yet to subside.

The Ministry reaffirmed that the safety of all tourists remains its highest priority, stating: "We will mobilise every resource and coordinate with every agency to ensure that no one is left behind in this critical situation."

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Military helps with rescues in Thailand floods as death toll rises to 33

Floods across nine provinces in Thailand have killed 33 people and affected more than 2.7 million.

The military is helping with rescue efforts, including evacuating critically ill patients from a Hat Yai hospital.

What's next?

More rain is expected.

Authorities in Thailand are sending helicopters to evacuate critically ill patients from a southern hospital marooned by some of the region's worst floods in years.

The death toll has risen to 33 and more rain is expected.

Floods have swept through nine Thai provinces and eight states in neighbouring Malaysia for a second successive year, prompting both countries to evacuate nearly 45,000 people.

Floods across nine Thai provinces have affected more than 980,000 homes. (Reuters: Sithichai Chootochana)

In Indonesia, eight to 13 people are estimated to have died following floods and landslides this week, while one has died in Malaysia.

In Thailand's hardest-hit city of Hat Yai, a public health official said helicopters would deliver food and ferry out patients.

It comes after the first floor of the main government hospital was inundated while 600 people were being treated, 50 of whom were in intensive care.

About 20 helicopters and 200 boats drafted into the Hat Yai rescue effort have had difficulty reaching stranded people, government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said.

Patients, relatives and medical staff at the hospital number around 2,000 and boats should be able to carry in food as the waters receded, health ministry official Somrerk Chungsaman said.

On a single day last week, Hat Yai received 335mm of rain, its highest tally in 300 years.

In Hat Yai, helicopters are delivering food and ferrying out patients after the first floor of the main government hospital was inundated. (Supplied: Royal Thai Army)

The Thai navy said military helicopters were also carrying generators to the hospital.

It posted photographs on social media of equipment being moved to a rooftop under dark grey skies.

Floods across the nine provinces, including Songkhla where Hat Yai is located, have affected more than 980,000 homes and 2.7 million people, the interior ministry said.

Thai weather officials forecast scattered thundershowers and heavy rains on Wednesday in several southern provinces, including Songkhla.

Floods across nine Thai provinces have affected more than 2.7 million people. (Reuters: Karit Chaui-aksorn)

Convoys of aircraft and trucks were moving flat-bottomed boats and rubber dinghies towards Hat Yai, along with medical supplies and personnel, according to the Thai military, which took charge of relief efforts on Tuesday.

Thailand's only aircraft carrier, Chakri Naruebet, set out from its home port on Tuesday to provide air support, medical assistance and meals in the relief efforts, the navy said.

Photos posted by the Thai army showed rescuers pulling stranded families, including children and the elderly, from homes inundated by swirling brown water.

Many of the stranded people took to websites and social media seeking help.

"Please help. I'm very worried about my mother," wrote one person, adding that she had been unable to contact the 53-year-old in Hat Yai since Saturday, when domestic supplies were down to just a bottle of water and two packs of instant noodles.

Reuters

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Jeez!

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I'm trying to work out why you would need a helmet are they motorbike taxis

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Easier than carrying it, mind you, could be useful to hold fish...

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Thai PM admits flood failures after trapped victims wait days for help

More than 160 people were killed in the disaster across nine provinces in Thailand.  (ABC News: Karishma Vyas)

For seven days May Noopannoy did not know if her father was dead or alive.  

He lived alone in the densely populated neighbourhood of District 8 in Hat Yai, one of the worst-affected areas in the catastrophic floods that swept across south Thailand this week.

"I was very scared for my father because I couldn't contact him. Very, very scared. I couldn't work, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat," she told the ABC, after driving seven hours to reach him from her home in Phuket.

On Friday she arrived to an apocalyptic scene. Mud-caked furniture and other debris was piled in the streets, swept out from people's living rooms by gushing floodwaters.

Thailand’s Health Ministry estimates that more than 160 people were killed in the disaster across nine provinces, but at least 110 of those died in Songkhla, where Hat Yai is the capital.

Noopannoy was lucky to find her 60-year-old father alive. 

He had barricaded himself on the first floor of this home. 

The floods had submerged the ground floor, leaving him without food, electricity, water or a functioning phone for almost a week.

"Where is the government?" Noopannoy asked. 

"They said 'Oh we can give money'. But it's too late, you know. Normally you should do something before this happens."

"They [local authorities] said 'Oh it's easy, we can handle this'. But they didn't handle anything. They just left everyone alone."

Family members trapped at a house after flooding in Hat Yai district. (Reuters: Athit Perawongmetha)

'For six days no-one came to take care of us'

As floodwaters receded, hundreds of people emerged on the streets, busying themselves by sweeping sludge out of their ground-floor homes and businesses. Others could only sit in stunned silence, staring at the mountains of waste that covered their neighbourhood.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted with people shouting and running down the street. An army truck had arrived with food. Residents told the ABC that this was one of the first signs they had seen that help was arriving.

"For six days no-one came here to take care of us. The water was so high, and they could not get in. We had to take care of each other," said Mao, a retired teacher.

People taking shelter from severe weather and flooding at the Ratprachasun Government High School in Hat Yai. (ABC News: Karishma Vyas)

For a whole night she said she had watched over an elderly grandmother across the street who was trapped in waist-deep water and hanging out of a first-floor window. 

In the morning, Mao said the whole street worked together to rig up a flotation device to move her to a safer building.

Since then, she said the only people who had come to help were volunteers from almost 1,000 kilometres away, and the army.

"There was an army truck that came to deliver food. They gave me a packet of instant noodles and a box of milk. They said, 'That's it'. I waited in this long line, and all I got was a packet of instant noodle and a little box of milk. What is this? After the hardship that I've been through," she said.

The anger at authorities was palpable in District 8 and across Hat Yai city. At the height of the floods, about 77,000 people had reached out to authorities for help via social media, but only 16,000 evacuated, according to authorities.

Chonticha Darachot and her four-year-old daughter Thanchanok take shelter at a high school in Hat Yai. (ABC News: Karishma Vyas)

Chonticha Darachot, 24, said she was trapped on her open-air roof for two days with her four-year-old daughter, Thanchanok, who was becoming sicker by the hour. She said she called the help lines relentless to get rescued.

"Every day they would pick up my calls, but nobody came to rescue us. I called the army. They took my calls, but nobody came. It was a matter of life or death, but nobody came," she told the ABC.

In the end, it was her neighbours who found a boat to evacuate them to a shelter.

A growing public backlash

As once-in-300-year rains deluged the region on November 21, the local government failed to warn and evacuate residents, assuring them that they had the situation under control. 

Within 24 hours floodwaters made it impossible for tens of thousands of people to seek shelter, trapping them in their homes without supplies.

"This was the worst situation I've seen since I was born", said Chaiwat Surangsophon, 61, his hands covered in mud as he cleaned out the debris from his Chinatown noodle shop.

"In the past, even when the floods weren't that high, we would hear the engine of boats. We would hear the voice of rescue teams. But this time there was nothing. There was complete silence."

Members of a volunteer team evacuate a resident from her home, which is partially submerged in a flooded area in Hat Yai district. (Reuters: Sithichai Chootochana)

Facing a growing public backlash, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul toured flood-affected areas four times since the disaster occurred. 

His government has removed Hat Yai's district chief and transferred its police chief. He has also apologised, and approved more than $225 million in funds to help flood victims.

That money is desperately needed. 

More than 33,000 homes have been damaged in Hat Yai and its surroundings, as well as hospitals, schools and more than 700 kilometres of roads, according to Thailand's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA).

The aftermath in the Chinatown area of the Hat Yai district.   (ABC News: Karishma Vyas)

It has been a disastrous month throughout Asia, with floods, typhoons and cyclone-fuelled torrential rain killing about 600 people. Governments and rescue teams have been overwhelmed by the scale and strength of the calamities.

Large parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have been inundated by torrential rain for a week, with a rare tropical storm forming in the Malacca Strait. 

Local authorities say more than 300 people died in Indonesia alone.

A cyclone in the South Asian island of Sri Lanka is the latest disaster to hit the region and has already claimed 150 lives.

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bigger than a big thing

Death toll passes 900 in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka floods

LINK

Authorities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand are racing to clear debris and find hundreds of missing people after more than 900 died in devastating floods and landslides across the south of Asia.

In the latest example of the impact of the climate crisis on storm patterns and extreme weather, heavy monsoon rains, exacerbated by a tropical storm, have overwhelmed parts of south-east Asia in recent days, leaving thousands of people stranded without shelter or critical supplies.

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka in south Asia, the death toll from floods and landslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah rose sharply on Sunday to 334, with many more still missing and low-lying areas of the capital, Colombo, under water, authorities said.

It is the worst natural disaster to hit the island in two decades since the devastating 2004 tsunami that killed about 31,000 people there and left more than a million homeless.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who has declared a state of emergency, vowed to build back with international support. “We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” he said in an address to the nation. “Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.”

In Indonesia, officials said more than 442 people had died and a further 402 were missing as authorities attempted to reach some of the hardest-hit areas of Sumatra island, where thousands of people were stranded without critical supplies.

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