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Central Bangkok ’safe’ from floods: Thai PM

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:31:48 +0000

Thailand’s premier declared central Bangkok safe from the kingdom’s devastating floods Saturday, as the death toll passed 600 and President Barack Obama vowed the US will give whatever help it can.

Thailand is suffering its worst flooding in half a century, and 5.4 million people are still affected around the kingdom, but Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said that inner areas of the capital were out of danger.

Yingluck met Obama on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit on the Indonesian island of Bali on Saturday — her first face-to-face meeting with the US leader.

“It’s certain that the inner zone of Bangkok will be safe from floods because the measures to hold floodwaters have been successful,” she said in her weekly radio and television address.

The drainage of floodwaters in the western part of the capital was progressing slowly, she said, but she remained confident that a key road linking the city to the country’s south would not be cut.

“Many feared that Rama II road may be submerged, but it’s unlikely now and if it is inundated it will not be serious,” she said.

Some 602 people have been killed in floods and two are still unaccounted for, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said in an update on Saturday.

Many areas in the north and west of the capital are still under water and full or partial evacuation orders are in force in 24 of the city’s 50 districts.

Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra joined 1,000 volunteers clearing up a major road junction in the city’s north on Saturday after the waters receded, and he vowed to clean up the whole city by the end of the year.

Obama congratulated Yingluck on her “inspirational” election victory in July and pledged US support in the floods crisis.

“We will extend any assistance we can,” he said. “The US and Thailand are two of the oldest allies, with great friendship. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the victims of the flood.”

Washington has promised more than $10 million to help Thailand recover from the disaster.

The meeting with Obama comes at a delicate time for Yingluck, the sister of the deeply divisive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to avoid a two-year jail sentence for corruption.

Yingluck, 44, who had no experience of politics before her election, has faced criticism for her handling of the flood crisis and over reports that her government had drafted a royal pardon that could allow Thaksin to return.

Obama’s warm words — which went beyond the usual diplomatic niceties — come after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Bangkok this week, where she said she was reassured of Yingluck’s commitment to democracy in comments also seen as supportive of the government. — AFP

Thai princess: King temporarily lost consciousness

admin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:29:15 +0000

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s ailing king — the world’s longest-reigning monarch — recently suffered a health problem that caused him to temporarily lose consciousness, his daughter revealed, linking the incident to stress over the country’s flood crisis.

News that the health of 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej took what Princess Chulabhorn described as a brief turn for the worse comes as floods have inundated much of Thailand, including parts of Bangkok and its suburbs. More than 500 people have died, damage is estimated at several billion dollars and central Bangkok remains threatened.

Chulabhorn, the king’s youngest daughter, said Friday during a visit to flood victims in Nonthaburi province north of Bangkok that King Bhumibol had gone into shock and lost consciousness after suffering abdominal bleeding and a sharp drop in his blood pressure. She said that about 800 cc of blood had been found in his bowel movements.

Chulabhorn said the king returned to normal health after being treated at the hospital where he has been staying for more than two years, according to the official royal news broadcast Friday night. The king, who took the throne in 1946, was originally hospitalized on Sept. 19, 2009, with a lung inflammation. Official statements said he remained at the hospital for physical therapy and nourishment to recover his strength.

In May this year, he had an operation to relieve a condition that made him walk unsteadily. A statement issued at the time said the spinal tap procedure was to relieve a condition common in the elderly — an excessive level of cerebrospinal fluid resulting in pressure on the brain.

Chulabhorn said Friday that after the May operation, the king “seemed to be at ease” until the flood crisis. The king has been shown from time to time on television speaking — sometimes with difficulty — at royal functions held at the hospital.

Chulabhorn said doctors told her the recent bleeding could have been caused by concern over the flooding.

“So I asked the nurse what he had been doing in the past few days,” Chulabhorn said. “It turned out that he had been watching news about the flood. This indicates that His Majesty the King loves his people as his own children. He is very concerned and he usually doesn’t speak much, but (his concern) is seen in his physical condition.”

She did not specify when the health problem took place, but her comments indicated it was more than a week ago. She had previously spoken about it on Nov. 7, though not in such detail, and said Friday that it happened the same day she had been visiting flooding victims in Ayutthaya province, also near Bangkok. She visited a Buddhist temple there on Nov. 4.

The Royal Household Bureau, which is in charge of releasing news about the king, said Saturday that it could provide no further details on the king’s health. Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital, where the king is staying, said it could provide no information without the approval of the Royal Household Bureau.

It is potentially unlawful for private citizens to publicly comment on the king’s health. In 2009, four people were arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to spread rumors about the king’s health. Under the Computer Crime Act, spreading false information deemed harmful to national security is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 baht ($3,260).

Open discussion of the monarchy is also constrained by strict lese majeste laws that make criticism of the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

A doctor in neighboring Myanmar asked to comment on the king’s symptoms said it would take more than psychological stress for someone to lose 800 cc of blood. Dr. Tun Kyaw, assistant surgeon at the government hospital in Yangon’s North Okkala neighborhood, said there had to be other reasons, such as an existing affliction or side effect from medicine. Blood-thinning drugs can cause abnormal bleeding.

The doctor added that the blood the king lost “is a significant amount, especially for elderly people.”

Dr. O.P. Sharma, an expert in geriatric medicine in India, said the king likely would have required an immediate blood transfusion, constant blood pressure monitoring and an endoscopy if more bleeding occurred. But he added that the prognosis for such episodes is often good and that it’s difficult to predict whether the bleeding will occur again.

“They recover very well. He can recover pretty quickly,” he said. “… It’s a cause of concern, but I’m sure he’ll recover.”

The king traditionally has played a conciliating role in Thai society, and his decline in health has coincided with trouble in the Southeast Asian nation. A 2006 military coup ousting the then-prime minister ushered in a period of political instability marked by sometimes violent street protests.

His near-disappearance from the public scene has also raised concerns about what will happen after his passing. His son and heir-apparent, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, does not command the same respect and affection as the king. — AP

Explosions, shootings rock troubled Thai south

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:40:42 +0000

A dozen small explosions shook Thailand’s Muslim-majority deep south on Sunday, hours after gunmen shot dead three Buddhists at a petrol station in the restive region, police said.

There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths from the blasts, which struck five districts of Narathiwat Province bordering Malaysia, officials said.

“Most of the explosions were from hand-made devices planted in front of convenience stores or telephone booths and lightly injured several people,” said provincial police chief Major General Chaithat Intanuthip.

“So far there were no reports of serious casualties.”

Earlier Sunday unknown gunmen shot dead three people including a 75-year-old man at a petrol station in the same province.

Thailand’s southernmost provinces have been plagued by more than eight years of conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 4,800 people, both Muslims and Buddhists.

People in the region complain of a long history of discrimination against ethnic Malay Muslims by authorities in the Buddhist-majority nation, including alleged abuses by the armed forces.

The latest blasts came less than a week after 15 explosions blamed on suspected Muslim rebels ripped through a town in neighbouring Yala province, killing at least one civilian and wounding dozens more.

That attack coincided with the seventh anniversary of a protest in the region that left 85 anti-government demonstrators dead, most of whom suffocated or were crushed to death while being transported to a detention centre.

Rights groups have said the failure of Thai authorities to hold security forces to account over the deaths has fuelled further violence and alienation in the region.

Observers say there has been more frequent and intense violence in recent months. — AFP

Flood-wary Bangkok is contrast of misery, normalcy

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:31:37 +0000

BANGKOK (AP) — On one side of Bangkok, you’ll find the victims of Thailand’s worst flooding in half a century. They float down trash-strewn waterways, paddling washtubs with wicker brooms over submerged neighborhoods.

Just a few miles (kilometers) away, you’ll find something else entirely: well-heeled shoppers perusing bustling malls decorated with newly hung Halloween decorations and couples sipping espresso in the air-conditioned comfort of ultrachic cafes.

Although catastrophic flooding has devastated a third of this Southeast Asian nation and submerged some of the capital’s northernmost districts, life is going on for the majority of this sprawling metropolis of 9 million people.

The desperate images of disaster contrast sharply with scenes of total normality — from night-owls drinking cocktails in red-light districts to tourists enjoying relaxing foot massages in faux-leather chairs downtown.

An exodus of thousands of Bangkok residents to nearby resorts and a government-ordered five-day holiday have left the notoriously congested city unusually easy to maneuver by taxi and three-wheeled tuk-tuk.

“It’s better, in a way,” Nicole Attwater of Sydney said Sunday, adding that she was happy to brave some flooding to see the Grand Palace, the gold-studded former seat of the Thai monarchy, with far lighter crowds than normal on a sunny weekend morning.

“It’s a good time to come, because it’s quiet,” she said.

Most of Bangkok is dry, with little to indicate that anything is wrong — except for the ominous walls of sandbags stacked around hotels and homes, and the apocalyptic predictions of everyone from expatriate bloggers to some members of the Thai government.

Yet, the threat of floodwaters sweeping through the city is still real. Nationwide, 381 people have died in the flooding over the last three months, and 110,000 more have been displaced — 10,000 of them in Bangkok, according to government figures. The catastrophe has put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and cost billions of dollars in damage — a bill that grows larger by the day.

Among items struck from tourists’ agendas: shopping for crafts at the popular Chatuchak weekend market and dinner cruises down the city’s Chao Phraya river — all canceled due to the high waters. The river swelled to a record high level early Sunday, spilling into some neighborhoods.

Fears over worse-case scenarios and travel warnings issued by foreign governments have slashed visitors by half at sites like the Grand Palace and the giant gold-plated Reclining Buddha inside Bangkok’s Wat Pho temple complex.

But the biggest problem by far, said tour guide Keerati Atui, is the media, which he said have given the impression that most of Bangkok is under water.

“Look around,” he said, gesturing to lines of tourists streaming into the palace. “It’s dry. Everything here is normal.”

River water has lapped at the palace gates and even crept inside, but much of it has welled up through drains in the riverside neighborhood. One picture posted this week on Twitter showed a cameraman filming a television news anchor on a street beside the palace in ankle-high water. On both sides of the pair, the street was dry.

Heavy monsoon rains have pummeled a large swath of Asia since July. As floodwaters crept across Thailand, they first drowned neighboring provinces, then districts on the northern outskirts of Bangkok. Last week, advancing water closed the city’s Don Muang airport, which is used mainly for domestic flights. However, the international Suwarnabhumi airport is open, and the city’s skytrain and subway lines are operating normally.

Nobody knows how far the water will go, but Bangkok’s defenses have mostly held.

Statements from government leaders have alternated from assurances the capital would be spared to dire warnings that nowhere is safe.

Panicked Bangkokians have stripped supermarkets and convenience stores of bottled water and dried noodles in recent weeks, but there is still plenty to drink. Both those items can be found in street-side shops along the city’s temple-dotted riverside, where the mineral water is ice cold and the noodle soup is spicy and sprinkled with fish balls.

“A lot of people are overreacting, they’ve been hoarding too much stuff,” said Kwanpimol Pleegluay, a 48-year-old housewife. “They watch the news and see people in other flooded provinces and think that’s going to happen to them here.”

Kwanpimol was taking a casual stroll along the Chao Phraya with her husband over the weekend — to see how high the river swelled. After peering into the water, she took his photo and chose one word to describe the scene: “Beautiful.”

On the other side of the Chao Phraya, where the 200-year-old pagoda of the city’s famed Temple of the Dawn rises from the banks, 42-year-old monk Phramaha Abhin said he was not worried.

“The Lord Buddha taught us not to be negligent, we must always prepare,” said Phramaha, referring to newly laid protective layer of sandbags outside the temple where he lives. “But he also taught us not to foolishly fear that which hasn’t happened yet.”

Many people in Bangkok and neighboring provinces see the flooding as something that should be accepted.

In Bangkok’s heavily flooded Thonburi district, a navy team evacuated a stranded pregnant woman whose water broke Sunday. Aorasa Wisetkoop looked anxious, but remained calm and held tightly onto her belly, while a rescue team lifted her into a boat.

“We had to get her to hospital,” rescuer Nitipat Mongolpradit said.

But along with every tragic and urgent incident in the inundation, there were images of Thais splashing in the floodwaters for fun.

When the river began flowing like a waterfall over a wall into Chantana Srisuwan’s wooden-shack kitchen, the 58-year-old pulled out a stack of aluminum pans, soaped them up and began washing them. “Why bother being troubled?” she asked.

“If we think we shouldn’t get wet, we’ll never have peace of mind,” she said, as a neighbor complained he could not sleep because his bed was submerged beneath encroaching waves. “If there’s no water, great. But if there is, we have to learn to live with it.” — AP

Residents in flood-prone Bangkok urged to leave

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:13:25 +0000

Thai authorities urged residents in flood-prone areas of Bangkok to evacuate Wednesday, warning them that the arrival of a massive deluge of water was imminent.

A huge runoff from the north equivalent to 480,000 Olympic swimming pools is expected to reach the capital at the same time as seasonal high tides, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

“The floodwater has reached the inner city,” it said in a statement, putting the expected volume of water at 1.2 billion cubic metres.

The government has ordered a five-day holiday from Thursday for 21 provinces including Bangkok, to allow the city’s residents to prepare for the inundation or leave.

“I would like to ask Bangkok people who are already affected or could be affected soon to consider evacuating to other places,” said Thongthong Chantarangsu, spokesman for the country’s Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC).

“Food and deliveries will become more difficult,” he added. FROC said it was working on providing extra shelters across the city of 12 million people.

Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said that a large amount of water “will get to Bangkok tonight”, after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said flood barriers might not be able to hold back the deluge.

During the holiday Government offices will be closed and authorities have urged public and private companies to allow their staff the time off, but the central bank said financial markets and banks would not shut.

Public schools in Bangkok, currently on holiday, are not expected to reopen until November 15, and several international schools have also delayed the return of pupils.

More than 600 inmates, including some on death row, were moved on Wednesday from the notorious Bang Kwang prison on the Chao Phraya riverbank — better known as the “Bangkok Hilton”.

Workers at Dusit Zoo, also near the waterway, also began to evacuate some of its residents, including spotted deer and antelopes, while structures were provided for lions to climb up to safety.

Adding to the deluged kingdom’s woes are fears of crocodiles on the loose from flooded farms — another three were captured Wednesday in Nonthaburi province, north of the capital.

“They are between 1.7 and 1.8 metres (five and a half and six feet) long,” an official from the fisheries department told AFP, adding that they knew of no attacks on humans by the escaped reptiles, whose numbers remain unclear.

The country’s worst flooding crisis in decades has been plagued by contradictory information from national and local authorities, confusing Bangkok residents who have been bracing for the onslaught of water for days.

Yingluck said on Wednesday she was “fifty percent confident that the inner zone of Bangkok will not be completely flooded,” toning down comments from a day before when she said flooding in central Bangkok was “highly likely”.

She said a “worst-case scenario” would see parts of the low-lying city inundated by “more than one metre” of water.

“Initially, the floods in Bangkok will last for two weeks to one month,” she added.

Many supermarkets were running low on essential items such as bottled water and eggs as residents stocked up on goods ahead of the expected deluge, and the premier advised people to boil tap water before consuming it.

More than 370 people have been killed in the three-month flood crisis caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains, damaging the homes of millions of people and forcing tens of thousands into evacuation centres.

Bangkok’s main international airport, Suvarnabhumi, is operating as normal but the domestic Don Mueang airport in the north of the city suspended flights on Tuesday until November 1, after waters started seeping onto the runways.

About 4,000 flood evacuees who had found refuge at a disused terminal on the compound were being moved to other shelters.

The disaster is expected to shave around one percent off Thailand’s economic growth in 2011, according to the government, which on Tuesday announced a raft of measures to help flood-affected businesses in an bid to reassure investors.

Proposals to boost investor confidence include about $10 billion in soft loans and tax waivers. — AFP

A man drives his tuk-tuk (three-wheel taxi) past floodwaters near Bangkok's Grand Palace in the city's historic centre. Thai authorities urged residents in flood-prone areas of Bangkok to evacuate Wednesday Graphic showing estimated water levels in a worst case assessment of flooding in the Thai capital of Bangkok

Graphic showing estimated water levels in a worst case assessment of flooding in the Thai capital of Bangkok

Bangkok in ‘crisis mode’ as floods advance

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:07:22 +0000

Bangkok’s second airport shut down Tuesday as floodwaters advanced into the Thai capital, forcing authorities in “crisis mode” to declare a five-day public holiday in preparation for the deluge.

The cabinet ordered an October 27-31 holiday for Bangkok and 20 other provinces affected by the kingdom’s worst flooding in decades, amid warnings a high tide would surge up the capital’s main river and escalate the disaster.

“The government has switched to a crisis mode as a massive run-off will arrive in the capital on October 26, coinciding with a high tide on October 28,” the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) said in a statement.

In a televised address to the kingdom late Tuesday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra gave a stark prediction of the potential impact of the flooding, saying the water was “at full force, which is more than the barriers can hold”.

She said it was “highly likely” that all of Bangkok, including the inner zone, would flood, with a “worst case scenario” seeing water levels of up to 1.5 metres in some parts.

Her cabinet decided on the extra-long weekend at a meeting in Don Mueang airport in the city’s north, which handles domestic flights and has been doubling as an evacuee shelter and a headquarters for flood relief operations.

But as the waters that have already flooded several northern and eastern districts of Bangkok closed in, airport officials announced the two runways would shut until November 1.

“Because a lot of water is creeping into the northern premises of the airport, it could cause planes to slide on the runways,” Airports of Thailand said.

About 100 domestic flights normally operate from the airport each day.

Yingluck, who is facing her first major crisis since coming to power in August, said before the cabinet meeting that the evacuees sheltering there would also have to relocate.

The public holidays are designed to allow Bangkok’s 12 million residents to brace for the floods now creeping towards the city centre after swamping other parts of the nation, killing some 360 people and damaging millions of homes.

“The public and private sectors have been urged to allow their flood-hit staff some time off, so that they would have a chance to look after their property and protect their homes,” said the FROC statement.

Schools and government offices will be closed, but the central bank said financial markets would not shut down.

Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra also made a televised address Tuesday warning residents along the Chao Phraya river in the capital to be on “full alert” after the waterway reached record highs of of 2.30 metres on Monday.

“If the situation continues in these circumstances, the water level this weekend will hit 2.60 metres, while our average flood embankment is 2.50 metres high,” he said.

In the city centre, residents were lining up to buy bottled water directly from trucks resupplying shops, after days of panic buying emptied supermarket shelves.

Information about the floods has often been inconsistent, with politically inexperienced Yingluck apparently at odds with Bangkok’s local administration, run by a rival party, and rumours of tensions with the army.

A defence official in Washington said the US navy had withdrawn several ships, including an aircraft carrier, sent to help with relief efforts in Thailand after receiving “mixed” messages from the Bangkok government.

“There were two channels (in the Thai government),” the defence official told AFP. “One was saying ‘Yes’ and one was saying ‘No.’”

But Thailand’s defence minister, General Yutthasak Sasiprapa, indicated that authorities felt they were able to handle the situation themselves.

“We have not denied their assistance, but we have our own aircraft so we would rather use ours,” he told reporters, adding however that he was unclear over the details of the US offer and needed to check with the air force chief.

A spokesman from the US embassy in Bangkok said one ship from the US group had docked in Thailand on October 20 and its helicopters had since been on missions coordinated with the Thai army and other US agencies.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on a tour of Asia, “is closely monitoring the situation,” spokesman George Little said in a statement.

“Thailand is a close ally, and we will continue to work with Thai officials to assess what they may need in the form of assistance from the United States,” he added. — AFP

Killer Asia floods swallow children who can’t swim

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:55:03 +0000

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — It took only a second for the murky floodwaters swamping parts of Asia to swallow Nguyen Phuoc Hien’s baby. His 3-year-old daughter had been playing happily while her aunt studied, but somehow, the girl slipped quietly outside the family home deep in Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta.

When Hien’s wife returned to the shack from feeding the pigs and realized her youngest child was missing, “she was in a panic looking around,” he recalled. “Our neighbors helped us look for her. Her body was found an hour later in the canal near the house.”

Children make up around a quarter of the nearly 800 deaths reported since July across Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines, according to the United Nations. The region has been ravaged by some of the worst flooding in decades, but drownings are a huge unreported epidemic in Asia. Every year, an estimated 240,000 children up to 17 years old die — mostly because the majority of kids simply never learn to swim.

That annual number is roughly equal to the total deaths from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but day-to-day water deaths rarely get attention.

“Those (in the tsunami) were counted because they drowned in a space of six to eight hours in the region, and everyone was just stunned because the number was enormous,” said Michael Linnan, technical director of the U.S.-based Alliance for Safe Children in Bangkok, who has studied child drowning. “But the reality is that in that the 364 days before that, an equal number of mothers and children had drowned as well. But they drown one at a time and not in a disaster setting, so they weren’t counted.”

During excessive flooding, it’s easy for children to accidentally get in over their heads while playing or wading in filthy water where it’s impossible to see what dangers lurk beneath each step. Some fall into fast-moving canals or streams in their yards or villages, while others lose their footing on porches or windows, falling into waters surrounding their houses — sometimes at night. Often their disappearance goes unnoticed because parents are busy trying to salvage livestock, crops or meager belongings vital to the family’s survival.

“You have very little dry land and you have massive population movements,” Linnan said. “It doesn’t take very long for a child to slip away from an already harried mother or older sibling who are trying to schlep all the belongings. It takes only two or three minutes for a child to drown.”

Monster seasonal monsoon rains have overwhelmed swollen rivers, dams and canals in the region, and back-to-back typhoons and tropical storms have hammered the Philippines, China and Vietnam. Some 4 million acres of Thailand have been inundated in the country’s worst flooding in a half century, and the waters are creeping deeper into Bangkok, an anxious capital city of 9 million barricaded behind walls of sandbags.

Bangkok governor to city: Prepare for floods

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:27:56 +0000

BANGKOK (AP) — The governor of Bangkok issued a dramatic warning to residents of the Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge.

In live televised remarks late Sunday, Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said a massive amount of water has moved faster than anticipated and was expected to flood the Don Muang area just north of the city proper — where Bangkok’s old airport is located and now being used as headquarters for the anti-flood effort and a shelter for evacuees.

On Monday, water flooded traffic lanes near Don Muang airport, though one lane was still passable. Thai television showed residents in the area leaving their houses with luggage. Air operations were normal there, however, as well as at Bangkok’s main international airport on the other side of the city.

Sukhumbhand said the water would threaten five other districts as well as it barrels toward the city’s more developed areas. On the warning list was the Chatuchak district, popular with tourists and locals both for its “Weekend Market” of handicrafts and myriad other wares.

“Now all indications point to only one conclusion: a critical problem will happen,” Sukhumbhand said. He said residents of the six districts should move their belongings to higher ground, and the sick and elderly should be evacuated to shelters set up by the city. There was no indication that the capital’s inner city residential and business districts were yet at risk.

Sukhumbhand’s warning stood in stark contrast to general reassurances given earlier in the day by the Flood Relief Operations Center of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government. It announced that the situation was under control and could be expected to improve.

However, less than an hour after Sukhumbhand’s warning, the center’s chief, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, came on the air to read a brief statement saying it would support the city’s relief efforts.

Sukhumbhand has consistently issued more pessimistic assessments than the center, and has been in conflict with their plans for flood relief, saying his primary duty is to protect Bangkok’s residents. The dispute has a political tinge since he is a prominent member of the opposition Democrat Party, ousted from power by Yingluck just a few months ago.

The anti-flood agency had said earlier Sunday that the threat that floodwaters will inundate Thailand’s capital could ease by early November as record-high levels in the river carrying torrents of water downstream from the country’s north begin to decline.

But with the authorities battling the waters north, east and west of the city proper, it was clear that Bangkok’s immediate prospects remained uncertain. The relatively rosy longer term projection from the Flood Relief Operations Center came just a day after reports that Bangkok’s main Chao Phraya river was overflowing its banks and at its highest levels in seven years.

Off a highway heading north of the city, Associated Press reporters found people scrambling Sunday for safety in flooded streets.

The Thai military used boats to help rescue stranded residents near Don Muang airport.

Mothers walked in hip-high water with children strapped to their backs, while other people waded through the murky water holding belongings in plastic bags atop their heads.

In Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, a 7-foot (2-meter) crocodile was captured while resting on dry land outside a restaurant, presumably after pulling itself out of the surrounding floodwaters. Thai television showed the beast, which had reportedly escaped from a farm, with its snout taped shut and its scaly body covering most of a boat that was carrying it away.

An Associated Press photographer saw two crocodiles that had been killed in Nonthaburi, and unconfirmed recent reports have claimed up to 100 crocodiles may have escaped from farms in the region.

Yingluck said Saturday the waters may take up to six weeks to recede to manageable proportions around Bangkok. In the city and its environs, residents have settled into a routine of waiting and worrying.

Many are hoarding supplies, and supermarket shelves have emptied faster than they can be restocked. Bottled water, batteries and canned food were among the first items to go.

At a supermarket in central Bangkok’s business district — which is not under immediate threat — sandbags lined both entrances Sunday, forcing shoppers to step over to go inside. Many of the shelves were bare, with the handful of shoppers inside grabbing the few snacks that were left. Cat food and toilet paper were gone.

While larger stores in Bangkok have kept their prices fixed, smaller merchants were raising theirs in the flooded zones north of the city. A Rangsit resident, Taweetit Hongsang, complained that the price of a papaya, 10 baht (33 cents) a week ago, had shot up to 30 baht ($1).

The desperate battle to route the water away from the city has led to several conflicts in which people have used force to try to protect their own neighborhoods by removing flood barriers.

Sukhumbhand said earlier Sunday that one crew of city workers was unable to carry out reinforcement of one barrier because of “a group of people opposing the mission and harassing” them. He said it was necessary to withdraw them “since they are not trained to deal with unruly and armed outsiders.”

In evident response, Yingluck said she had delegated high-ranking police officers to protect workers carrying out anti-flood duties.

The flooding that began in August in northern Thailand has killed 356 people in the country and delivered an economic body blow to industry and agriculture, with estimates that the $6 billion in damage could double if Bangkok is badly hit.

The flooding is the worst to hit the country since 1942 and is proving a major test for Yingluck’s nascent government, which took power in July after heated elections and has come under fire for not acting quickly or decisively enough to prevent major towns north of the capital from being ravaged by floodwaters.

A Sunday night report on state television in Myanmar, Thailand’s western neighbor, said heavy rains and flash floods killed 106 as several villages were inundated in the country’s northwest last week.

Cambodia, Thailand’s eastern neighbor, has also suffered from flooding, with more than 240 people killed. — AP

Thailand counting cost as flood seeps into Bangkok

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:31:23 +0000

BANGKOK (AP) — Floodwaters that have devastated Thailand’s industry and agriculture seeped into outer Bangkok on Friday as the crowded capital’s residents braced for the impact, uncertain if they will soon be hopping over puddles or fording waist-high streams just outside their windows.

Thailand’s prime minister urged residents of the city of 9 million people to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground. Key gates on flood-control canals in the capital have been opened in a risky move to drain the high waters into the sea, but it’s not known how much will overflow onto streets.

An Associated Press team saw water entering homes and rising to knee level Friday in a northern district along the capital’s main Prapa canal. Damage so far was minor and not affecting Bangkok’s main business district.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the Prapa canal was a big concern and urged people “not to panic.”

Newly released data showed the devastation the flooding has caused in both agriculture and industry.

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization said flooded areas of the country cover 12.5 percent of the total land under cropping.

“Although no precise crop damage estimates are yet available, the main rice season at the critical growth stage is likely to be affected the most,” said an FAO statement.

Thailand is a major agricultural exporter and has been the world’s top rice exporter for decades. The FAO said it expected its estimate to rise as dams allow run-off of water.

Thailand’s Labor Ministry said the flooding has affected 14,818 workplaces and 678,227 workers. The total includes the damage from five major industrial estates north of Bangkok forced to shut operations in the past few weeks after being inundated. Among those affected are Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda, forced to suspend major assembly operations, and a slew of automotive parts makers.

The electronics industry has also suffered, with the best known victim being U.S. hard drive maker Western Digital, which has two major production facilities in the flooded zone.

Economic analysts say the floods, the worst in half a century, have cut Thailand’s 2011 GDP projections by as much as 2 percentage points. The latest damage estimate of $6 billion could double if floods swamp Bangkok.

The government said at least 342 people have died in the floods since July. Some towns were submerged under water more than six feet high (two meters high), and the uncertainty in the capital may persist for up to three weeks.

Many fear the worst is yet to come, as the massive volume of water flowing from north and central Thailand pushes into Bangkok and its network of canals.

Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said managing the Prapa canal was a “top priority” but vast pools of runoff draining through it from the north are expected to intensify. An immense network of sandbagged barriers could deteriorate under pressure from the water.

Yingluck also invoked her powers under a disaster law that give her overriding authority over all other official bodies, including local governments, to fight the crisis. It should allow better coordination with the municipal authorities in Bangkok and helps project Yingluck as a take-charge leader, after weeks of seeming indecision and confusion. — AP

Floodwaters spill into northern Bangkok

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:27:05 +0000

Millions of nervous Bangkok residents were warned Friday to move their belongings to safety as the kingdom’s worst floods in decades poured into the outskirts of the sprawling city.

In a desperate attempt to drain the mass of muddy water, the authorities have opened all of Bangkok’s sluice gates to allow the floods to flow through canals and rivers in the low-lying capital and into the Gulf of Thailand.

The move should ease pressure on vulnerable flood barriers on the northern edge of the city of 12 million people, but it increases the threat to Bangkok itself, where some outlying residential areas were inundated on Friday.

People were advised to move their possessions to higher floors or safe areas after the government admitted the sea of water bearing down on the capital from the central plains was unstoppable.

“I ask all Bangkok residents to move your belongings to higher ground as a precaution, but they should not panic. It’s preparation,” said Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who has described the crisis as “overwhelming.”

Three months of heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 342 people in Thailand and damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of others, mostly in the north and centre.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to seek refuge in shelters, including 33-year-old Nonglak Yodnankham who fled the approaching water in Pathumthani province just north of Bangkok.

“The flood was following behind us when we ran away. Within five minutes, it was already up to my waist,” she told AFP at an emergency shelter at Bangkok’s number two airport, Don Mueang, protected by 10,000 sandbags.

The waters were already seeping into the capital too, leaving little doubt that large areas of the metropolis would be inundated. The only uncertainty was how deep the floods would be and whether the city centre would be hit.

Waist-deep water submerged roads and houses in Don Mueang district in northern Bangkok while more than 2,000 homes were flooded in neighbouring Lak Si, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city centre.

“The water keeps increasing. It’s not receding at all. It keeps spreading,” Don Mueang district chief Phumpat Damrongkiatisak said late Friday, adding that several square kilometres (miles) in his area alone were inundated.

In the east of the capital, dykes were close to overflowing, the city authorities said, reassuring residents they had evacuation plans ready if necessary.

Yingluck said the authorities would organise additional emergency shelters, make more parking spaces available and assign security officials to oversee significant locations such as the palace and Bangkok’s main airport.

Bangkok residents have rushed to stock up on food and bottled water, while motorists have parked hundreds of cars on bridges or elevated roads.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and police have been mobilised to maintain order.

The opposition is calling on the government to declare a state of emergency to make it easier to control people and prevent them damaging dykes to ease the flooding in their own areas — but Yingluck ruled out such a move.

Amid signs of tensions between the government and the Bangkok governor, the 44-year-old former businesswoman said she would invoke a section of the disaster law to increase her authority in dealing with crisis.

Yingluck, who is the sister of fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra and was a political novice before taking office, is facing the first major crisis of her two-month-old leadership and has shown signs of strain.

The authorities have failed to protect a number of major industrial parks from the gushing brown water, which has inundated hundreds of factories outside Bangkok, disrupting the production of cars, electronics and other goods.

The government says more than half a million people have seen their jobs disappear for now.

Leading Japanese automaker Toyota said Friday its three factories in Thailand would stay closed for another week due to a shortage of parts.

Most of Thailand’s main tourist attractions — including the southern islands of Samui, Phuket and Phi Phi — have been unaffected although some foreign governments have warned against non-essential travel to Bangkok.

Bangkok’s main airport, built on a drained marsh, is still operating as normal and its flood defences have been reinforced. — AFP