Short flood news (update November 5)

Water from the north has reached the Lat Phrao intersection. By Friday afternoon it was 60 feet high and seemed to keep rising.

Central Plaza department store closed. Two of the three entrances to Phahon Yothin subway station were closed; the station may close completely if the water continues to rise. The water also reached the Ministry of Energy building where the government's crisis center is located, but that will not be moved. Previously, it was located at Don Mueang Airport.

• Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra has ordered the evacuation of three neighborhoods in Lat Phrao, where the water level is between 80 cm and 1 meter.
• The water is expected to flow from Lat Phrao to Ratchadaphisek Road and Chatuchak (known for its weekend market). Those two areas are lower than Lat Phrao.
• Elsewhere in Bangkok, the water has spread further. In western Bangkok, the water rose 20 cm on Phetkasem Road from Bang Kae district to Phasicharoen district. On the stretch between the Ban Kae market and The Mall department store, the water is between 30 cm and 1 meter. It has now reached the entrance of Siam University. Buses have stopped on this route; only army vehicles can still use it to evacuate residents.
• The municipality warns of a rising water level in the Nong Khaem sub-district of Nong Khaem district.
• In eastern Bangkok, the Sathira Dhammasathan dhamma center on Ram Intra Road was flooded. Outside the center the water is 20 cm high, inside it hip-deep.
• The so-called 'big bag' flood wall, named after the bags with 2,5 tons of sand that were used, should alleviate the flooding in northern Bangkok, but at the expense of residents in Thon Buri on the west side of Bangkok. The 6km embankment, due to be completed Friday evening, runs from Chulalongkorn Weir in Thanyaburi (Pathum Thani) district along the railway to Decha Tungkha Road past Don Mueang Airport.
• According to Anond Snidvongs, director of the Geoinformatics and Space Technology Development Agency, Rangsit and the Don Muang district can be drained within a week when the flood wall is completed. In Bangkok-west it takes at least 45 days. The Ta Chin River has flooded and the dike on the west side of the Chao Praya is leaking in 13 places. The construction reduces the risk of contamination of the canal from which the drinking water company draws its water. There are some concerns about residents who destroy dikes, endangering the mains water supply.
• About 30.000 detainees have been evacuated from flooded prisons. Those who have been left behind suffer from a lack of drinking water and food. The situation in the other prisons is not much better because the prisons were already overcrowded before the evacuees arrived. The Red Cross is in the process of informing the relatives of the evacuated prisoners.
• A health call center hotline gets 2 million calls a day. Many questions come from people who are insured through the Social Security Fund or who fall under the universal healthcare scheme. They complain that they cannot reach their hospital and want to know if they can go to a hospital outside their assigned area. The hotline is operational 24 hours a day.
• It is still not clear whether 15 highly venomous green mamba snakes really escaped from a house in Nonthaburi or whether it is a prank on the internet. On Friday, 50 doses of serum arrived from South Africa. Just to be sure. The green mamba usually lives in trees.
• 5.300 people have lost their jobs as a result of the floods, the Labor Department says. They worked at one of 20.000 companies with 790.000 employees in 16 provinces affected by the water.
• In the industrial estate Bang Chan (Bangkok), which has not yet been flooded, 60 percent of the companies are still in operation, the others have stopped production.
• Over the next three days, the municipal cleaning service will use 60 adapted garbage trucks to tackle the rubbish that floats here and there. Work continues at night, because the garbage problem has reached a critical level, says the governor of Bangkok.
• A flood barrier in the district of In Buri (Sing Buri) at the Bang Chom Sri weir has collapsed. The rampart could not withstand the enormous water flow from the Chao Praya River. An attempt is being made to repair the dike before the water reaches the eastern part of the district and two neighboring districts in Lop Buri.
• The Don Muang toll road will remain free for an extra week, now until November 12. The causeway is above the Vibhavadi-Rangsit road which is under water.
• Public schools in 13 flooded counties will resume classes on November 15. Perhaps the schools in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani will start later. International schools may start as early as November 7 if the water does not cause problems for students and teaching staff.
• The MRT (underground subway) will close all entrances to Phahon Yothin and Chatuchak stations if the water level rises above 40 cm. Two of Phahon Yothin's three entrances closed on Friday. The situation at Lat Phrao station is also being closely monitored.
• Yesterday the newspaper reported that 19 boats, 20 rafts and mobile toilets were lying idle at the Corrections Department. The head of the service says today that his service will look after 30 donated boats [or 50, as both numbers are mentioned in the message] at the request of the Froc. Several services have already borrowed the boats. The Department of Special Investigation and the Legal Execution Department have sent a letter to Corrections asking to borrow some boats. [Never heard of the phone, right?]
• Next Wednesday and Thursday, parliament will discuss the budget for fiscal year 2012. Government party Pheu ภาษาไทย expects the government to come under fire from the opposition for its handling of the floods. Pheu Thai meets on Tuesday to prepare for it. The budget closes with a deficit of 2,38 trillion baht.
• Two factories of food and beverage company Nestlé have been hit by the water: one in Ayutthaya and one on Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate. The remaining four are operational; the company is doing everything it can to save them from a flood. Nestlé has imported a number of products, including drinking water, from its factories in other countries to keep stores supplied.