Tropical downpour causes widespread flooding in Bangkok

A tropical downpour that lasted two days caused flooding of more than a third of the territory of the capital of Thailand; in a number of areas, the first floors of houses were flooded, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

As a result of the rain and the overflow of several canals in a number of areas, the depth of flooding in Bangkok ranges from 50 centimeters to one and a half meters. The Bangkok administration declared the city an emergency zone.

“We can’t leave the house or go somewhere, there’s water all around. Delivery doesn’t work, the couriers can’t reach us, so we eat what was in the refrigerator when the flooding started. We’re lucky, the house is relatively high, and the neighbors’ cars in the courtyards are “waist-deep” in water and the first floors are flooded to a third,” Russian woman Ekaterina S., who lives in a private house in the Minburi area on the east, told RIA Novosti outskirts of Bangkok.

She said that residents of the area rescued their cars en masse on Friday and Saturday morning, placing them in the multi-story parking lot of the large Fashion Island shopping center until water flooded its first and basement floors.

Speaking live on Thai PBS, Bangkok Governor Chatchat Sitthiphan announced a list of buildings owned by government and city institutions that have multi-storey parking lots where residents are allowed to temporarily park their cars. He also announced the closure of schools in the city on September 28 to relieve flooded roads used by parents to transport children to school from also flooded residential areas on the northern and eastern outskirts of Bangkok.

As of 6:30 p.m. Saturday (2:30 p.m. Moscow time), the rain had stopped in the central areas of Bangkok, but was still continuing on the eastern and northern outskirts of the city.

In the administration of the Phibun Wat Thana quarter on the border of the historical and business parts of Bangkok, a RIA Novosti correspondent was told that there was a shortage of sandbags in the city, which are used to build barricades to stop the rising water. The block itself is not flooded, but on the nearby Phakhonyothin Street, in some areas the depth of flooding reaches 50 centimeters.

“You can’t buy sandbags today. They were still buying them yesterday, but today no one sells them,” the district administration said.

Expats living in the Thonglo-Ekamai area on Sukhumvit Street, a popular area among foreigners, told the agency's correspondent that the streets of the area are completely flooded with water, in some areas up to one and a half meters, and the local population moves along them on boats between cars that are flooded almost to the roof.