Residents flee flooded Bangkok
Source: Agencies |
October 28, 2011, Friday
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CLAMBERING aboard bamboo rafts and army trucks, residents living on the heavily inundated outskirts of Bangkok fled waterlogged homes yesterday as floodwaters inched closer to the heart of the threatened Thai capital and foreign governments urged their citizens to avoid all but essential travel.
Most of the city remained dry and most of its more than 9 million residents were staying put to protect their homes. Still, uncertainty over Bangkok's fate and the start of a government-declared five-day holiday fueled an exodus of thousands of people fearing the worst who took to clogged highways and air terminals to get out of town.
Tears welling in her eyes, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her government could not control the approaching deluge. "What we're doing today is resisting the force of nature," Yingluck told reporters. She said the water bearing down on Bangkok was so massive that "we cannot resist all of it."
The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than half a century, have drenched a third of the provinces and killed close to 400 people. For weeks, they have crept down from the central plains, flowing south toward the Gulf of Thailand. Bangkok is in the way, and now it is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through it via a complex network of canals and rivers.
By yesterday, flooding had inundated seven of Bangkok's 50 districts, most on the northern outskirts. There, roads have turned into rivers and homes and businesses are swamped. On a flooded key east-west artery, police were turning back small cars, telling them the road had become impassable.
The government has expressed deep concern over higher-than-normal tides expected through the weekend. Yingluck has warned the entire city could flood if the Chao Phraya River, which snakes its way through the heart of the metropolis, crests above flood barriers lining its banks.
The river has overflowed already, sending ankle-high water lapping at the white exterior walls of Bangkok's gilded Grand Palace, a highly treasured complex that once housed the kingdom's monarchy and is a major tourist attraction.
Though floods a day earlier swept through Bangkok's Don Muang Airport and shut it down, the city's main international airport is operating as usual.
Several foreign governments issued advisories urging their citizens against all but essential travel to Bangkok. Britain's Foreign Office said "flooding is likely to disrupt transport, close tourist attractions and may affect electricity and water supplies."
Most of the city remained dry and most of its more than 9 million residents were staying put to protect their homes. Still, uncertainty over Bangkok's fate and the start of a government-declared five-day holiday fueled an exodus of thousands of people fearing the worst who took to clogged highways and air terminals to get out of town.
Tears welling in her eyes, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her government could not control the approaching deluge. "What we're doing today is resisting the force of nature," Yingluck told reporters. She said the water bearing down on Bangkok was so massive that "we cannot resist all of it."
The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than half a century, have drenched a third of the provinces and killed close to 400 people. For weeks, they have crept down from the central plains, flowing south toward the Gulf of Thailand. Bangkok is in the way, and now it is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through it via a complex network of canals and rivers.
By yesterday, flooding had inundated seven of Bangkok's 50 districts, most on the northern outskirts. There, roads have turned into rivers and homes and businesses are swamped. On a flooded key east-west artery, police were turning back small cars, telling them the road had become impassable.
The government has expressed deep concern over higher-than-normal tides expected through the weekend. Yingluck has warned the entire city could flood if the Chao Phraya River, which snakes its way through the heart of the metropolis, crests above flood barriers lining its banks.
The river has overflowed already, sending ankle-high water lapping at the white exterior walls of Bangkok's gilded Grand Palace, a highly treasured complex that once housed the kingdom's monarchy and is a major tourist attraction.
Though floods a day earlier swept through Bangkok's Don Muang Airport and shut it down, the city's main international airport is operating as usual.
Several foreign governments issued advisories urging their citizens against all but essential travel to Bangkok. Britain's Foreign Office said "flooding is likely to disrupt transport, close tourist attractions and may affect electricity and water supplies."
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