The flood of 2011
As you may have heard Thailand has been suffering from its worst flooding in decades. The past few months have been very hard on the northern and northeastern provinces. Many rice fields have been destroyed and more than 300 people have died as a result of the flooding caused by heavy rainfall and overflowing dams. Now the waters have reached Bangkok and the government has been scrambling to protect the city. In order to do that they've been diverting water farther upstream causing even worse flooding there. As you can imagine, not everyone is happy about that arrangement. But yesterday the prime minister announced that they will open the floodgates in Bangkok in an attempt to get the water out to sea faster. The northern parts of the city were already flooded and now the eastern areas are in danger. This caused a fresh round of panic and people flocked to the stores to stock up on necessities. (Here that means bottled water, instant noodles, and canned fish.) People also started driving their cars onto the safety of the elevated expressways, parking them, and walking away. (Notice the car on the right in the picture below that's even got a cover on!)
On Fridays I usually meet with a friend who is studying English. But last night he told me he couldn't make it and sent this picture as evidence...he's rowing this boat through his house.
We really don't know what to expect here in our neighborhood. Some people are using sandbags to protect their property and I just noticed that the neighbors across the street are adding blocks to the top of a cement wall that they built around their house to keep out the last flood. (That one never arrived.) There are a lot of conflicting reports, so we'll just wait and see. It sounds like tomorrow could be a critical day as more floodwater from the north enters the city.
More pictures of the flooding can be found here
-Tom.