Flooding in 29 of Thailand’s 76 provinces has destroyed or damaged more then 300,000 homes, authorities said, briefly sinking parts of resort city Pattaya in waist-high water and causing the evacuation of 79 elephants from a farm in Ayutthaya.
About a 1.3 million acres of farm land is under water — about eight times the size of Singapore.
“Twenty-one provinces in north and northeast have been warned of flash flooding and landslides,” the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said in a statement on Friday.
The floods began after tropical storm Nock-ten battered Southeast Asia in late July, killing more than 50 people in the Philippines before bearing down on Vietnam and Thailand. Heavy rain and floods damaged paddy fields but not enough to significantly cut output in the world’s top rice exporter, industry sources said.
Several roads in northern Thailand remained cut off and trains have faced significant delays.
By next week, flood waters could reach parts of Bangkok, which sits only two meters  above sea level, causing the capital’s Chao Phraya river to overflow onto roads in some areas, although authorities have reinforced its banks to prevent serious flooding.
Yingluck’s month-old government approved 800 million baht ($27 million) in compensatation for households affected by floods.