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BANGKOK: — Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsup Friday issued an urgent order to the public health offices in eight provinces to be on alert on the around-the-clock basis to provide help to people if natural disasters happen because of the influence of tropical cyclone Nargis.

The eight provinces are Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Tak, Sukhothai, Khamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani and Kanchanaburi.

The Meteorological Department announced Friday that as of 10 am Friday, Nargis was centred in the middle Bay of Bengal at latitude 15.9 degree north and longitude 93.0 degree east or about 350 kilometers west of Rangoon with maximum sustained wind of 140 kilometers per hour.

The department warned that the influence of the storm would cause heavy rains in many northern and central provinces.

– The Nation 2008-05-02

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Warning
No. 5 (55/2551) Time Issued : May 02, 2008

At 10.00 a.m. today, tropical Cyclone “NARGIS” in the middle Bay of Bengal was centered at latitude 15.9 degree north and longitude 93.0 degree east or about 350 kilometers west of Yangon, Myanmar with maximum sustained wind of 140 kilometers per hour. It is moving eastward with speed of 16 kilometers per hour and will move landfall to Myanmar tonight (2 May 2008). This cause abundance rainfalls and heavy to very heavy rain in many places in the North and the Central during 2-5 May, 2008.

People in the west of Thailand, especially in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Tak, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, Phetchabun, Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani and Kanchanaburi and Ranong provinces should beware of flooding conditions during this period. Rough sea is likely in the Andaman Sea. All ship should proceed with caution and small boat should keep off-shore during this period.

– Thai Meteorological department 2008-05-02

Related link:
Tropical Cyclone Nargis

BANGKOK: — At least 54 Burmese migrant workers suffocated as they were being smuggled into Thailand inside a cold storage container.

Another 21 were seriously injured, police said.

The victims were among 121 people crammed inside the container that was 6m long and only 2.2m wide, said Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai, commander of the local police station in the southern border province of Ranong where the bodies were found.

The airtight container was normally used to carry frozen seafood.

But the migrants were trying to enter Thailand by hiding inside the container which was travelling across the border, he said.

The migrants were supposed to pay a Thai smuggling ring 5000 baht ($170) each to transport them from the Burma-Thai border in Ranong to the nearby resort isle of Phuket, he said.

Once there, they hoped to find work as day labourers, he said.

When the man driving the truck carrying the container realised some of the migrants had died, he parked on the side of a road, opened the door to the container, and fled.

“The people said they tried to bang on the walls of the container to tell the driver they were dying, but he told them to shut up as police would hear them when they crossed through checkpoints inside Thailand,” he said.

The 46 people who survived without injury had been arrested.

taken from here