BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Heavy rains have killed eight people in Thailand since mid-September, the government said Monday as Bangkok battled flooding for a fourth consecutive day, with at least eight more confirmed dead in neighboring Myanmar.

The casualties in Thailand have occurred in three eastern provinces since 16 September, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, with none reported in the capital.

More than 500,000 households and 1.7 million people across 27 provinces are currently affected by floods in Thailand after an intense weather system hit the region, it said.

In hard-hit Bangkok, schools were closed and authorities urged people to work from home where possible — a call that many heeded, with roads and public transport networks noticeably quieter.

More than 80,000 people were unable to leave their homes in the capital due to flooding, the interior ministry said.

Nattapon Mankean, 32, said his apartment complex in Bang Kapi, eastern Bangkok, had no electricity or water, so he and his girlfriend fled with two cats, one in a cage and the other in a specialized rucksack.

“Our phone batteries died, we had no running water — everything became difficult,” the 32-year-old told Agence France-Presse (AFP) late on Sunday.

“It was terrible, I couldn’t do anything,” he added. “I had to get out.”

Authorities declared a city-wide disaster on Saturday after almost 48 hours of heavy rain, and on Monday some residents were still wading through thigh-high waters.

In Bang Kapi, locals used ice-boxes and other floating plastic containers to cart supplies from nearby markets and supermarkets, AFP reporters saw.

Myanmar deaths

The rains that lashed Thailand also hit neighboring Myanmar, where rescuers said heavy floods and landslides in the southern region of Tanintharyi had killed at least eight people.

“We have recovered eight bodies while between 20 to 30 people are missing” in Launglon township, said Hein Htet, of the local volunteer group People’s Administration Team.

Three of the recovered bodies were teenagers who had gathered at a local monastery on Sunday but were swept away by a landslide that hit their village, burying 18 buildings, he said.

“There are still people and villages in the danger zone with continued rainfall,” he warned.

Myanmar’s civil war often makes the scale of natural disasters hard for humanitarian organizations to judge, as well as complicating relief efforts.

“We are inundated not only with the scale of the flood but also with the lack of resources. This is a natural disaster in the conflict area,” Hein Htet said.