The 2011 rainy season saw the highest levels of rainfall in Thailand in the previous 50 years. Flooding started in northern Thailand on 31 July, a week prior to Yingluck's appointment as Prime Minister. Flooding quickly spread from the North to the Central Chao Phraya River Basin, and by the beginning of October, the province of Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, was almost flooded. The floods were the worst in Thailand in over 50 years. Yingluck established centralised flood monitoring and relief operations in mid-August and made tours of flooded provinces beginning 12 August. Yingluck also pledged to invest in long-term flood prevention projects, including the construction of drainage canals. Flood reduction measures were hampered by disputes between people on the different sides of flood barriers: those on the flooded side in some instances sabotaged the barriers, sometimes resulting in armed confrontation. Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and military Leaders called for Yingluck to declare a state of emergency, claiming that it would give the military greater authority to deal with embankment sabotage. A state of emergency had last been declared in 2010 during the Abhisit-government's crackdown on anti-government protesters. Yingluck refused to declare a state of emergency, saying that it would not improve flood management. Instead, she invoked the 2007 Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act and issued a disaster warning which gave her government greater authority to manage flood control and drainage.