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    October 24, 2011

Bangkok Residents Evacuate Six Districts as Floodwaters Near

   VOA News
   Photo: REUTERS
   A man discards water from his house as water overflows from the Chao
   Phraya river to the street at Phranakhon district in Bangkok, October
   24, 2011

   Residents of six Bangkok districts were moving to higher ground Monday
   after officials in Thailand's capital city warned that flooding in the
   areas is imminent.
   Bangkok's governor said late Sunday that aged and infirm residents of
   the districts should move into emergency shelters while others should
   move their belongings to higher ground.

   Monday morning, water was already spilling into streets around the
   city's old Don Muang airport and a center for relief operations.
   ``Water has been rising dramatically, it was 30 centimeters last night
   and this morning it 60 centimeters," said a unidentified volunteer at a
   relief center. "The others and I have been watching out through the
   night.''
   The volunteer said the water rose dramatically through the night and is
   now about 60 centimeters deep.
   Business parks housing hundreds of enterprises in the Thai capital's
   northern suburbs have been under as much as three meters of water since
   last week, and officials say it could be weeks before the water
   recedes.
   With still more water bearing down on Bangkok from central Thailand,
   authorities have been shoring up levees and diverting water through
   canals in a desperate effort to keep the flooding out of the city
   center.

   But in places like Don Muang and nearby Chatujak, home of a popular
   weekend market, residents are heeding the governor's advice.
   "If it [the sandbag barrier] is broken it will be more difficult to
   evacuate," said Pongnaret Putor, a Bangkok resident, "So I rather move
   now and reassess the situation in the next few days.''
   The flooding, caused by a combination of monsoon rains and a series of
   typhoons, has affected much of Southeast Asia and killed more than 350
   people in Thailand alone.
   Cambodia has reported more than 240 people killed by floodwaters, while
   Burma said Sunday it suffered more than 100 killed in flash floods last
   week.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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