Bangkok flood alert as tidal surge hits peak

IT IS a city in crisis. Last night, the defences shielding the centre of Thailand’s capital were pushed to their limits as peak tides threatened to flood central Bangkok and its outskirts remained submerged under several feet of water.

Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra attempted to bring calm when she stated that the floodwaters had started to recede after killing almost 400 people, submerging entire towns across Thailand’s interior and forcing the closure of hundreds of factories over the last two months.

She also urged people to let the crisis take its course as the floodwaters drained to the sea, with Bangkok in their path.

“We have the good news that the situation in the central region has improved as run-off water gradually decreased,” she said. “I thank people and urge them to be more patient in case this weekend is significant because of the high tide.”

Bangkok residents warily watched the city’s dykes and sandbag barriers as high tides pushed up the Chao Phraya River from the Gulf of Thailand, peaked just after 9am yesterday and again in late evening. Yesterday’s tides had been described for a week as the greatest test of the capital’s flood defences since the northern deluge first approached Bangkok more than three weeks ago.

While some streets and shops along the river were inundated, the morning tide fell short of the expected high predicted by the Thai navy and there was no major breach.

Higher than usual tides will last until tomorrow but are predicted at lower levels than those that tested the city’s flood defences yesterday.

Bangkok city official Adisak Kantee said the city’s concrete barriers “were efficiently protecting Bangkok from deluge,” though he said smaller, private dykes might yet fail.

“The situation is so far under control,” he added.

Overflows in recent days have lightly covered riverside streets from the city’s Chinatown to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. But the white-walled royal Grand Palace was dry a day after being ringed by ankle-deep water, and the landmark remained open to tourists.

Many visitors carried parasols to protect themselves from the blistering tropical sunshine.

Yingluck said yesterday in her weekly radio address that the government was trying to speed the drainage rate, and water in the greater Bangkok area should recede within days. While the streets of downtown Bangkok were bone-dry and bustling with taxis, restaurant-goers and tourists snapping pictures, flooding spread in areas along the city’s outskirts.

Seven of Bangkok’s 50 districts – all in the northern and western outskirts – were under several feet of water. Eight other districts were less seriously flooded.

In the city’s west, not far from the flooded area of Bang Phlat, workers filled sandbags and stacked them in pick-up trucks for delivery to the front lines, while vendors did a booming trade in life-jackets, plastic boats, Styrofoam and anything else that floated.

With many roads in the area submerged, traffic was heavy heading both in and out of the city.

Thousands of Bangkok residents in recent days have taken advantage of a special five-day holiday to leave town, many wary at often confusing government warnings about the flood threat and others growing concerned about increasingly sparse supplies available in city supermarkets due to weeks of panic buying and flood-related distribution problems.

Yesterday, the agency charged with keeping the public informed, the government’s Flood Relief Operations Centre, was forced to move its headquarters from its base at Don Muang airport, which is used mostly for domestic flights, to a government building nearby after a power transformer broke down.

Authorities were forced to shut down the airport earlier in the week because of flooding on the runways and surrounding streets.

While many in Bangkok will be breathing somewhat more easily now that the highest of tides has passed, there was no complacency in the Sam Sen area, where a flood defence burst early yesterday under the pressure from tidal surge. Residents and soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in the churning torrents trying to plug the gap and get the flow under control.

Not far away, second-hand bookseller Pormpittaya Tantiwimonkajorn – who has already been forced to close up shop – could do little but watch as the waters rose.

“We don’t know how high it’s going to get,” she said. “If we did, we’d know how to protect our property.”

At the nearby Boonchuay kickboxing camp, a handful of fighters went through their afternoon workout, sparring in a ring surrounded by the overflow of the Chao Phraya river. The camp’s well-worn heavy bags dangled inches above the murky floodwaters, while the weight machines sat submerged up to their seats, rendering them unusable.

Don Krasaein, 31, said the flooding was a distraction, but he wouldn’t allow it to affect his fighting. But he admitted to some worry. “I’m scared the water is going to rise even more,” he said.