Short flood news (update November 2)
November 3 2011
- The residents of the entire Bang Khen district, Sena Niwet housing estate Project II, Jarakhae Bua sub-district and Sam Wa Tawan sub-district should evacuate.
- Sai Kong Din and Kong Din Tai sub-districts, the entire Nong Chok district and Bang Chan sub-district may be flooded.
- The Flood Relief Operations Command, the government's crisis center, reports that the weirs in Khlong 8 and 10 cannot be closed due to strong resistance from residents of nearby flooded residential areas. If the weirs cannot be closed, five districts will be flooded. [For the location of the khlongs see map on homepage.]
- According to the governor, the situation in the west of Bangkok is uncertain as the water is spreading. A large part comes from Nakhon Pathom province. The governor says more pumps need to be deployed. The drainage capacity in the west is considerably less than in the east.
- The Khlong Maha Sawat has flooded, inundating parts of western Bangkok.
- The municipality is making frantic efforts to construct and strengthen flood walls in Thon Buri. Water pumps are used to discharge 100 cubic meters of water per second.
- The water in Ayutthaya continues to drop and that is a good sign for Bangkok, according to the Froc spokesman. But water from Pathum Thani has yet to flow into Bangkok.
- The water on the Ram Intra road continues to rise. At Central Department it stands 40 to 50 cm high. Shopping Island closed on Tuesday evening because the parking lot is under water. The fresh market in Min Buri has also been flooded.
- Water from the Prapa channel flowed up the Pracha Chuen road towards the Major Ratchayothin complex in Chatuchak district.
- In the west of Bangkok, the water spreads further. Five districts are still water-free.
- Democratic party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut urges the government to impress on the demonstrators in Khlong Sam Wa district that they should take the national interest into account. According to Chavanond, the government should promise them remedial measures in compensation. The weir was damaged on Monday by angry residents. When closed, it ensures that the inner city of Bangkok remains free of water.
- Anond Snidvongs, director of the Geoinformatics and Space Technology Development Agency, hopes that the construction of a flood barrier with large sandbags along Khlong Rangsit Prayoosak will limit the volume of water coming from northern Bangkok. The work is finished on Friday. Water from the northern districts of Don Muang, Lak Si and Bang Khen can then be drained within a week. Water drainage from western Bangkok will take at least a month as 1,7 to 2 billion cubic meters of water from Ayutthaya flows into the Khlong Maha Sawat, which is already flooding. Even in the east of Bangkok, the misery is far from over.
- NGOs and civil society groups are calling on the government to support temporary shelters arranged by residents themselves rather than evacuating them to remote places. Examples include local high-rise buildings, such as the first and second floors of schools, temples, health centers and district offices. Those less affected should be able to stay in their homes while receiving help from an evacuation center. The government must supply the evacuation centers with food, water, medicines and so on. Due to these measures, the residents are reasonably safe and they run less risk of stress, according to the relevant organizations.
- Officials working in the Government Complex on Chaeng Watthanaweg had to wade through a meter of water to reach their offices after five days off yesterday. They wore shorts and T-shirts and changed in the building. About 70 percent showed up. Most came by bus, because they parked their cars in a safe place.
- Staff of CAT Telecom, Thailand Post Co and TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand) had it easier. The company had arranged a shuttle bus from the bus stop on the flyover.
- The offices of the Administrative Court, the Attorney General and the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court remained closed. The staff is currently free.
- The Department of Special Investigation has allowed personnel living in flooded areas to stay at home.
- Soldiers can no longer cope with the work. They distribute food and evacuate residents. The Minister of Defense has asked other government services to help. In Bang Rakam district (Phitsanulok), soldiers are fighting the polluted water with EM (Effective Microorganism). Soldiers from the Army Engineer Department cleared the weeds in Khlong Hok Wa, something the Bangkok municipality should have done. The Air Force is working with the Royal Irrigation Department to drain the water from Don Mueang Airport.
- Japan has pledged another 400 billion baht in relief supplies plus large water pumps, motor boats, portable toilets and water filters. Thailand previously received goods worth 21,84 million baht.
- Bangkok's public transport company is providing three buses to evacuate 400 elderly people from the Ban Kae home. They go to a study center in Ratchaburi. The move takes two to three days.
- The Marine Department has made 56 motorboats available to the military. The boats can carry 12 passengers. They serve in Bangkok and neighboring provinces. The service also lends 13 flat-bottomed boats. Another 14 motorboats are used in Ayutthaya and 12 in Nakhon Sawan. When they are no longer needed there, they go to Bangkok. The service has also deployed 13 boats in the Khlong Rangsit Prayoonsak estuary in Pathum Thani. They lie there with engines running and propellers to accelerate the water flow, a method that experts say is of no use.
- Flood victims can sign up for job training during their stay in an evacuation center. The fee is 120 baht per day. When they have completed the course, the authorities help with the job search. They can also be put to work in a shelter.
- Two of the three major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki, do not know when they will be able to resume production because parts supply has stagnated. Although the Yamaha factory in Bang Na-Trat is not affected by water, it still had to stop production 10 days ago. She hopes to be able to resume it after November. Suzuki's factory in heavily flooded Thanyaburi (Pathum Thani) is also shut down, although the factory itself was not flooded. Parts are missing and workers cannot reach the factory. Honda shut down in Lat Krabang on October 11 and will resume production Friday.
- The 28th Thailand International Motor Expo from December 1 to 12 at the Impact Challenger Hall in Muang Thong Thani will go ahead despite the floods. According to the organizers, the expo offers a good opportunity for visitors to forget about the worries about the flood. Thirty-six car and four motorcycle manufacturers present their latest models.
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I don't understand anything, I don't read anything about the country Thailand, only Bangkok is strange.
Or is it that the people in the country are not that important.
I lived in Thailand for 23 years in Sukhothai, you don't read or hear anything about it either.
My house is gone because of the flood what now I'm here in the Netherlands since 2009
These messages are taken from Bangkok Post. The coverage is currently very focused on Bangkok. I read almost nothing about the province. That says something about the editorial policy of the newspaper.
Incidentally, the large daily newspapers in the Netherlands are also very focused on the urban Randstad. But at least they still have correspondents in the province, who sometimes provide articles.
I think Bangkok Post has no correspondents on site.
Indeed, it has always been so. Thailand = Bangkok. The rest of the country just depends on that and is not important. At most, some attention is paid to the surrounding provinces.