Heavy rain brings Bangkok to a standstill

By The Nation

 

 

Heavy downpours brought floods and traffic nightmares to many parts of Bangkok on Friday.

 

 

Office workers stepped out to find inundated and heavily congested roads. 

 

Ratchadapisek, Phaholyothin,Vibhavadi-Rangsit and Charansanitwong were among key roads under water, as were the Prachanukul and Klong Ton intersections and Rama IX’s Soi MCOT. 

 

 

Strong winds had also reportedly uprooted trees and knocked over power poles at several spots in the city. 

 

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said rain hit most parts of the capital and its adjacent provinces. Bangkok’s Huai Kwang district had the most rain at 96 millimetres.

 

 

 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30370726

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-06-07

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That'll sort out the air pollution .. 'till it dries out .. 

Rain.. in the tropics?

Here is Asoke BTS at 9.31pm, on the platform heading towards Kheha:

 

 

Comical! BTS is an outdated mode of transport ! It’s 20 years old and not fit for purpose


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57 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

That'll sort out the air pollution .. 'till it dries out .. 

 

unfortunately not, i read a scientific report, not a made up thai newspaper report, that said, unfortunately, the pollution particles are too small to be affected by rain.

Whatever....bkk needed a flush...

Modern civilization (10 million strong) trying to take over a patch of tropical river estuary, and wondering why it doesn't work out like in Western countries. 

And I thought uncle Tu had it all under control

 

1 hour ago, wreckingcountry said:

Comical! BTS is an outdated mode of transport ! It’s 20 years old and not fit for purpose

Be fair! they were 30 years late getting started on construction due to the usual ineptitude! if it was 50 years old it wouldn't be so bad.

Edited June 7, 20197 yr by CGW

Prayuth is now Pm - GOD HAS SPOKEN.

Been coming here since 1976.... remember many times wading in knee deep water then.... somethings just never change!!

The moral of the story is: Never buy a used car in Thailand, chances are it's been submerged on more than 1 occasion! 

Bangkok was once called "Venice of the East" due to all the klongs, right? Get rid of them and this is what you get with tropical rains.

6 minutes ago, Emdog said:

Bangkok was once called "Venice of the East" due to all the klongs, right? Get rid of them and this is what you get with tropical rains.

The city streets flooded long before any klongs were filled.  And much worse than today.  

This will never be resolved by the scrappy governors and uppers responsible for that mess

Edited June 8, 20197 yr by MaxLee

Oh Dear

instead of feeling a bit sympathetic for the citizens of Bangkok- the rain on Friday was horrendous.

 

We get constant Thai bashing and comparisons to the West - ThaiVisa is becoming very dull with people just trotting out the same banal posts all the time. 

So, not just a Pattaya problem.

How much money will they have to invest to "improve" the situation?
Probably some more baht than in Pattaya!

3 minutes ago, newnative said:

So, not just a Pattaya problem.

Definitely not, Phuket, Samui, Chiang Mai, and other cities are facing the same problem!

11 hours ago, blackcab said:

Here is Asoke BTS at 9.31pm, on the platform heading towards Kheha:

 

 

 

My husband was caught up in the traffic and I battled the crowded MRT. We live out in the sticks so we drove in and I said I’d take the MRT because I was caught in traffic on Wednesday and didn’t want to do that again. I went to visit our daughter and her new baby while my husband was going to a doctor’s appointment and a funeral for a neighbor. We planned to meet up after and drive home. He made it to the doctors appointment but couldn’t get into the parking lot at Wat That Thong at 6:00 pm due to gridlock, so skipped the funeral. Meanwhile after visiting my daughter I went to get on the MRT at Asoke. Now this is the second time in my years in Thailand that I’ve been shoved by a crowd. Entering the train at 7:30 pm, the crowd behind me shoved everyone and I hurtled toward a family: a mom, a dad and a little kid clinging to the pole in fright. Thank goodness I stopped short of contact with them as the shoving stopped. The previous time I was shoved was at Sampeng Lane when I was carried along by a crowd of shoppers thronging the narrow lane. That time was kind of funny as we were all smiling. This time was more scary. At least this evening the MRT and Air Rail Link security guards were stopping the crowds and blocking the entrance periodically before too many people entered the turnstiles which lead to the platforms. I think that was great and may have even saved lives, who knows. I thought rush hour would be over at that time but guess not! My nerves...

11 hours ago, CGW said:

Be fair! they were 30 years late getting started on construction due to the usual ineptitude! if it was 50 years old it wouldn't be so bad.

You think... if it was 50 years old it would be still using the original rolling stock.. same as MRT service

trains running through my neck of the woods resemble something from the 1950's.

16 hours ago, mike787 said:

Whatever....bkk needed a flush...

As does every Toilet.

7 hours ago, Emdog said:

Bangkok was once called "Venice of the East" due to all the klongs, right? Get rid of them and this is what you get with tropical rains.

There is a Bangkok on the other side of the river, lot more klongs and acres of water, nothing like as bad flooding.

My Mrs showed me the resulting photos of thousands of cockroaches clinging to every available lamppost and piles of drowned rats just before bedtime sweet dreams????

6 hours ago, 30la said:

How much money will they have to invest to "improve" the situation?
Probably some more baht than in Pattaya!

Soi 13 and 15 lower sukhumvit were recently completely dug up from one end all the way to the other, a mammoth job that took about 2 months each however they installed massive new drainage pipes along with huge drain runoffs every ten meters on both sides of each soi along with new concrete surface.

 

There were only a few puddles after the rain where there where rivers before. They are moving up all sois on lower sukhumvit so yes it has "improved" big time but They are spending on tourist areas ATM so it may expand or ..maybe not

Edited June 8, 20197 yr by madmen

Flew into DMK only to face a 2.5 hour wait for a taxi because of slow arrival of taxis due to flooding. The queue waiting area was maxed out, with 200 in the queue ahead of us, and an hour later, the queue depth was over 300. When we finally got on our way, I noticed a few dozen taxis chilling out in the taxi holding area - apparently they were in no hurry to venture out again.

18 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

unfortunately not, i read a scientific report, not a made up thai newspaper report, that said, unfortunately, the pollution particles are too small to be affected by rain.

 

Don't think that's right.... The spraying fire hoses in a few places is pure B.S.  But a sustained and heavy rain across the entire city ought to flush a lot of gunk out of the air.

 

Can imagine the displacement of rats.

On 6/8/2019 at 10:58 AM, Ragnarok said:

My husband was caught up in the traffic and I battled the crowded MRT. We live out in the sticks so we drove in and I said I’d take the MRT because I was caught in traffic on Wednesday and didn’t want to do that again. I went to visit our daughter and her new baby while my husband was going to a doctor’s appointment and a funeral for a neighbor. We planned to meet up after and drive home. He made it to the doctors appointment but couldn’t get into the parking lot at Wat That Thong at 6:00 pm due to gridlock, so skipped the funeral. Meanwhile after visiting my daughter I went to get on the MRT at Asoke. Now this is the second time in my years in Thailand that I’ve been shoved by a crowd. Entering the train at 7:30 pm, the crowd behind me shoved everyone and I hurtled toward a family: a mom, a dad and a little kid clinging to the pole in fright. Thank goodness I stopped short of contact with them as the shoving stopped. The previous time I was shoved was at Sampeng Lane when I was carried along by a crowd of shoppers thronging the narrow lane. That time was kind of funny as we were all smiling. This time was more scary. At least this evening the MRT and Air Rail Link security guards were stopping the crowds and blocking the entrance periodically before too many people entered the turnstiles which lead to the platforms. I think that was great and may have even saved lives, who knows. I thought rush hour would be over at that time but guess not! My nerves...

I have observed that it's more often foreigners who crowd at the doorways, often in groups and the Thais who move deeper into the cars, providing more room.  More irritating is when those crowded at the doorway chat merrily on, holding their place when the train stops at a station, making it difficult for those that did move inside to get out.  I have no qualms about bumping them on the way out.

 

@Ragnarok: You probably wouldn't enjoy Tokyo where professional pushers push passengers into the train doorways until every square cm if occupied.  Many passengers purposely wear slippery jackets and coats to make sliding out through the mass of people easier.

 

While the BTS/MRT is far from perfect, I challenge the always hyper-critical TV elite to name any major city with a population of a million or more that does not have a severely strained and overcrowded metro transportation system.  New York City?  Please; 2 billion dollar deficit, obsolete signalling and major breakdowns every day.  San Francisco?, Washington DC?  Very expensive, overcrowded with constant labor problems.  London?  Hong Kong, Paris, Moscow?  Don't go in rush hour.