Today (Sunday), thousands of Bangkok residents took refuge in shelters after torrential rains that lasted for days led to the flooding of the Thai capital’s residences, markets and roads due to the rising water level, while others rushed, on Sunday, to buy their food needs or tried to dry out their homes.
Passers-by wearing plastic raincoats made their way through knee-high turbid water, while others were transporting their belongings and possessions in plastic boxes floating in puddles in the streets.
“People cannot leave their homes,” Aduinan Sororot, a motorcycle taxi driver, told AFP outside a grocery store. Our house was about to run out of food, so I went out to buy some supplies.”
Sororot, 30, noticed that there was a shortage of goods in the stores near his house, as the water level still reached chest level. The man waited in line for about two hours to reach the cashier and pay what he owed. Customers came to the store in large quantities, while the number of employees was small.
Some stores ran out of goods at the weekend after residents rushed to buy necessities, while fresh produce in market stalls was kept dry inside polystyrene boxes or kept suspended above the water level.
The Prime Minister's Office called on citizens not to panic buy, warning that exaggerating price increases constitutes a criminal offence.
It is common for Thailand to witness rainy weather, and the rainy season reaches its peak in September, but a number of Bangkok residents said that the situation this year appears worse than previous years.
Employee Pandit Bankan was among those who expressed their dissatisfaction with the delay in official warnings. He said: “I did not prepare for the matter at all,” adding: “We received a text message from the (Disaster Authority) yesterday, but the water had flooded the place the night before.”
The Meteorological Authority reported that the amount of precipitation in some areas of the city between Thursday and Sunday exceeded 330 millimeters. About 4,900 people were evacuated and placed in shelters, while the effects of the floods affected about 52,000 families, prompting the authorities to declare a state of “disaster” throughout the capital, according to the Bangkok District Administration.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sitipunt indicated on social media today (Sunday) that there are still flooded roads, and that the water level in the city’s canals is still high, but the authorities are working to speed up the process of draining it.
On Saturday, Chadchart inspected a temporary shelter in a school in the Khei Rumklo area, to which about a thousand people were evacuated.
Some lay on field beds or sat in chairs as their dogs roamed the hallways, and others lay on classroom floors, covered with blankets. The city authorities announced that hundreds of schools would not open on Monday.
Kosin Nilsit, who lives along the Premprakakorn Canal on the outskirts of the capital, said that his house remained “submerged in water for about 30 hours.” The 44-year-old man added to Agence France-Presse as he used a broom to push the water out: “This time, the water level is higher than the floods of 2011.”
The 2011 floods across Thailand, located in Southeast Asia, killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes.
Scientists warn that the intensity and frequency of severe weather events will increase due to the continued global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions.
Floods were also reported on Sunday in 25 provinces in Thailand, according to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Authority.
More than ten thousand soldiers have been deployed across Thailand to assist in flood relief efforts, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The authorities expected rain to fall throughout the day on Sunday in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces, and that it would begin to subside on Monday.
Thedarat Silsuwan, who lives alone in her partially submerged house along the Premprasakorn Canal, said she does not want to resort to a shelter. The 56-year-old added: “I have been sleeping on the table for the last two days.”
