PM Yingluck To Thai Govt Agencies: Prepare To Evacuate

[webfact]

Prepare to evacuate: PM

The Nation

Yingluck to govt agencies: Make plans now to move people to places where aid can be delivered easily

Critical areas: nakhon Sawan, Ayutthaya, Uthai Thani, Chai Nat, Sing buri, Angthong, Nonthaburi, Lop Buri, Pathum Thani and Chachoengsao; Premier orders watch over Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani water barriers

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday ordered government agencies to prepare to evacuate people, as measures to prevent flooding were not working.

"The locations that no longer can be protected, don't waste time to protect them but shift to moving people to safe places," Yingluck told reporters after a meeting at the Flood Relief Operations Command.

The critical provinces are Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani, Ayutthaya, Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Angthong, Lop Buri, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Chacheongsao.

Agencies should maintain the integrity of flood barriers in Nonthaburi and Prathum Thani in particular as the two provinces are still in a position to be protected, she said.

For the evacuation, officials should take people to areas where the government can deliver relief supplies conveniently, she said.

Material assistance can arrive at only those locations accessible by trucks. The government would adjust the logistics system so all victims received sufficient sustenance, she said.

The government is now in a centralised mode, mobilising all agencies, manpower and resources to tackle the flood, she said. Previously, agencies worked separately to prevent floods without plan or direction, she said.

All agencies, no matter what their original duties were, would focus on helping to fight the flood, she said. The military, Irrigation Department and local administrations would cooperate closely to deal with the situation, she said.

Yingluck, together with many Armed Forces commanders, would take a helicopter ride to inspect the inundated areas in Ayutthaya to see whether relief supplies and survival kits had reached the victims, spokesperson Wim Rungwattanachinda said.

Almost all the people from the inundated areas in Ayutthaya are now on safe ground. Only some of them wanted to stay over in their residences, he said.

Yingluck spent most of her time at the flood relief centre in Don Mueang Airport. She called a meeting with Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha, Armed Forces commanders and Science and Technology Minister Plodprasob Surassawadi.

The military would open their camps to flood victims seeking shelter, she said, adding that the Air Force and Navy would take charge of transporting flood refugees.

If any private sector members have sites on high ground available for shelters, the government needs their support since some areas such as Ayutthaya are fully occupied, she said.

Speaking in a televised address, the premier urged people not to panic, and advised them to prepare well for inundation. Some areas of the capital - most notably the northern and eastern parts - are at risk, she said.

The government could forecast the weather from now until Wednesday, but there was still no clear information on the next rainstorm or typhoon, she said.

The government is now on alert at all times, she said.

The flooding this year has left more than 261 people dead and 30 provinces submerged.

The natural disaster has forced Yingluck to postpone her plan to pay introductory visits to Malaysia and Singapore this week.

Plodprasob said Ayutthaya is the most flooded location and in critical danger as it is situated at the confluence of many rivers. Authorities underestimated the amount of runoff water from the North, he said.

-- The Nation 2011-10-10

[MaiChai]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

[nikster]

"Plodprasob said Ayutthaya is the most flooded location and in critical danger as it is situated at the confluence of many rivers. Authorities underestimated the amount of runoff water from the North, he said."

I find that a bit hard to believe. It doesn't take a genius to add up river levels... pretty sure the "authorities" knew exactly what was coming. The government didn't.

I guess the "1000 boats" plan didn't work?

[philw]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

[Thai at Heart]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

The plans should have been in place years ago. Why they have held off telling the people this was coming is another issue.

[manhattan55]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Hear Hear!

[TomJoad]

Looked on the Internet and found BBC, CNN, predicting rain for Bangkok every day this week (60-88%). Looks like the north is getting spared this time, though.

[daiwill60]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

And they are only jjust beginning to realise how bad their education system has been for all in Thailand, especially rural areas where most of their party leaders were educated in the past as kids. themselves

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I don't want to play politics with the flooding, but some facts are just facts...

--Even when a government changes, most of the staff and career civil servants in the various ministries stay the same.... Only the top level ministers and leadership changes... If this government has been slow to respond to the flooding, it's the current leaders that should be blamed....not the fact that there was a recent change of leadership.

--Although the danger of flooding is just now heading toward Bangkok, this has been a slow-motion crisis that's been playing out upcountry for weeks.... For weeks, every night on TV, I've been watching video of areas upcountry being inundated. For the government just lately to start doing things like getting the military involved and implementing a supposed unified command and coordination function, makes one wonder where their attention has been for all these past weeks... not on the floods, it would seem.

--For a government that supposedly was elected by the "common people" upcountry and with a mandate to advance and protect their interests, those same politicians seem to have been remarkably blind and inept at doing much of anything substantial to lessen the damage of the floods or do much, until lately, to assist those being inundated.

But then again, the new government certainly has been busy in its early days in office... phone and video calls to Dubai... reshuffling and removing various public officials... moves about amnesty and changing the constitution... networks of Red Shirt villages.... I guess it's understandable how they might not have noticed that a huge flood was coming their way.

Ooops... I forgot... The science minister does have his plan about putting 1000 boats into the Chao Phraya river to somehow whoosh all the floodwaters out into the ocean...

Scratch what I wrote above.... they most certain do know what they're doing...

Edited October 10, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[h90]

I don't want to play politics with the flooding, but some facts are just facts...

--Even when a government changes, most of the staff and career civil servants in the various ministries stay the same.... Only the top level ministers and leadership changes... If this government has been slow to respond to the flooding, it's the current leaders that should be blamed....not the fact that there was a recent change of leadership.

--Although the danger of flooding is just now heading toward Bangkok, this has been a slow-motion crisis that's been playing out upcountry for weeks.... For weeks, every night on TV, I've been watching video of areas upcountry being inundated. For the government just lately to start doing things like getting the military involved and implementing a supposed unified command and coordination function, makes one wonder where their attention has been for all these past weeks... not on the floods, it would seem.

--For a government that supposedly was elected by the "common people" upcountry and with a mandate to advance and protect their interests, those same politicians seem to have been remarkably blind and inept at doing much of anything substantial to lessen the damage of the floods or do much, until lately, to assist those being inundated.

But then again, the new government certainly has been busy in its early days in office... phone and video calls to Dubai... reshuffling and removing various public officials... moves about amnesty and changing the constitution... networks of Red Shirt villages.... I guess it's understandable how they might not have noticed that a huge flood was coming their way.

Ooops... I forgot... The science minister does have his plan about putting 1000 boats into the Chao Phraya river to somehow whoosh all the floodwaters out into the ocean...

Scratch what I wrote above.... they most certain do know what they're doing...

I would change the first sentence to: "--Even when a government changes, most of the red staff and red career civil servants in the various ministries stay the same. The others of course get dumped.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

By the way, if the former government had performed in exactly the same manner as the current one, I would have likewise called them incompetent too....

So, let's see how it's going:

The Disaster Relief Centre reported on Sunday flooding still hits 30

provinces and the flood death toll has risen to 261 with four missing.

Frantic efforts to protect Ayutthaya's inner town and parts of its key industrial estatehave failed, forcing the government to order state officials to prepare for emergency evacuations in 10 provinces.

Economic losses from this year's floods look to rise sharply with the disruption to industry and manufacturing supply chains in Ayutthaya, local analysts say.

Almost 200 factories including the plants of leading Japanese car manufacturer Honda and major electronics makers in Ayutthaya have been forced to close and evacuate workers.

The government is calling on the public to donate about 700,000 sandbags to guard Bangkok against the coming floodwater from the North.

The National Flood Relief Centre on Sunday announced that it still needs a large quantity food supplies and necessities to be distributed to flood-hit people.

A hospital in Ayutthaya is submerged under about 2.2 metres of floodwater and electricity to the hospital has been cut off.

Edited October 10, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[xandreu]

Isn't it great that the floods, along with the subsequent deaths and major hardship that have been afflicted to so many people, have appeared at such a time so that we can use them to sit in our armchairs and point fingers at those in power.

The fact is that flooding, along with other natural catastrophes on this scale has caught many a government out in recent years. You simply can't prepare for it. Well, you can. If you want to throw a lot of money at a problem that may or may not happen. We've been caught out in the UK in recent years by floods, heavy snowfall, you name it....

Some people seem to think that governments have a magic wand that they can simply wave and make it all go away, and if they don't, they must somehow be at fault. They're either ill prepared or simply don't care about about the people who are affected. The truth is that it costs a lot of money to prepare for disasters such as this, and governments have to make decisions as to whether it's worth it or not. It's very easy, and dare I say, lazy, to wait for the event to happen and then sit there apportioning blame.

If floods on this scale happened frequently, it would be reasonable to ask why governments were ill prepared, but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale. I'm sure there will always be things that governments could have done better in hindsight, and I'm sure that in hindsight, bad decisions may have been made, but right now people are dying, losing their homes and businesses, being uprooted and having to deal with things we only have nightmares about.

I just don't think it's helpful or constructive to sit in our armchairs pointing fingers right now. The immediate concern should be dealing with the immediate problem.

It's far too premature and disrespectful to the victims to be sitting there in our comfortable armchairs screaming "I told you so..." at whichever government from whatever country we wish to vent our spleen at.

[wana]

but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale.

really ...........?

[Thai at Heart]

but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale.

really ...........?

And not a plastic bag to be seen anywhere. What may happen in Bangkok in the next week could turn into a really nasty health situation. God only knows what is in the klongs and the sewers.

I don't blame the current bunch specifically for this. Floods have been happening for ever in this part of the world, it is the complete lack of any apparent plan in the civil service or knowledge about what will happen next.

It has been raining for 3 months pretty much every or ever second day up river. How on earth did they think that Bangkok was going to escape? In which case, why are they pleading for sand bags NOW? It should have been more than do-able to have known this was going to happen weeks ago and preparations should have been started weeks ago.

Edited October 10, 2011 by Thai at Heart

[Bagwan]

Isn't it great that the floods, along with the subsequent deaths and major hardship that have been afflicted to so many people, have appeared at such a time so that we can use them to sit in our armchairs and point fingers at those in power.

The fact is that flooding, along with other natural catastrophes on this scale has caught many a government out in recent years. You simply can't prepare for it. Well, you can. If you want to throw a lot of money at a problem that may or may not happen. We've been caught out in the UK in recent years by floods, heavy snowfall, you name it....

Some people seem to think that governments have a magic wand that they can simply wave and make it all go away, and if they don't, they must somehow be at fault. They're either ill prepared or simply don't care about about the people who are affected. The truth is that it costs a lot of money to prepare for disasters such as this, and governments have to make decisions as to whether it's worth it or not. It's very easy, and dare I say, lazy, to wait for the event to happen and then sit there apportioning blame.

If floods on this scale happened frequently, it would be reasonable to ask why governments were ill prepared, but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale. I'm sure there will always be things that governments could have done better in hindsight, and I'm sure that in hindsight, bad decisions may have been made, but right now people are dying, losing their homes and businesses, being uprooted and having to deal with things we only have nightmares about.

I just don't think it's helpful or constructive to sit in our armchairs pointing fingers right now. The immediate concern should be dealing with the immediate problem.

It's far too premature and disrespectful to the victims to be sitting there in our comfortable armchairs screaming "I told you so..." at whichever government from whatever country we wish to vent our spleen at.

Well the Dutch Government had a magic wand and they waved it very effectively. The UK hasn't done so badly either by their reaction to the horrendous flooding along the East Coast that occurred in early 1953. They also had the foresight to build the Thames barrier. Flooding in Thailand is an annual event and has been for hundreds of years. I blame successive Thai Governments for the current situation and the present bunch of morons for their tardy response to what to most sentient people saw coming several days ago.

At lest we do not have top put up with the fat swine now who once stated that there would be no flooding in Bangkok and when the waters rose angrily told reporters that what they saw wasn't floods but merely heavy rainfall. Shades of the Goon Show and Hellzapoppin!. I'm just waiting for some red shirt to suggest that Thaksin be brought back so that he can employ his Knut (Canute) like powers to relieve the situation - and continue with his Herculean task of sorting out Bangkok's traffic problems as promised.

[BigBikeBKK]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

But one of their campaign promises was to end all flooding and droughts. Someone posted a picture of the campaign poster in another thread but I can't seem to find it. Yet another promise Phua Thai obviously can't deliver on...

[ronz28]

Is there any flooding at the Ongkharak district, Nakhon Nayok once planned site for a nuclear reactor which I think was halted about 2006? http://www.rertr.anl.gov/Analysis97/BThurgood-abs.html Would be interesting to see if Thailand dodged a bullet on that one.

[kutjebu]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

And they are only jjust beginning to realise how bad their education system has been for all in Thailand, especially rural areas where most of their party leaders were educated in the past as kids. themselves

Never think what the cost is to build thousands of kilometers dikes. That takes at least a decade to built them.

Edited October 10, 2011 by metisdead
Font resized.

[theanimaster]

All I could say is SOM NAM NAAAA for those who elected this government, which obviously doesn't intend on protecting the people that voted it.

Think they'll learn? Of course not. The Education Ministry keeps it that way. Keep 'em stupid, and they'll vote next time, no matter what happens, no matter what they lose. Hey -- at least they get their tablet computers.

Though I wonder if it would have been a different story if the other side won the elections?

[h90]

All I could say is SOM NAM NAAAA for those who elected this government, which obviously doesn't intend on protecting the people that voted it.

Think they'll learn? Of course not. The Education Ministry keeps it that way. Keep 'em stupid, and they'll vote next time, no matter what happens, no matter what they lose. Hey -- at least they get their tablet computers.

Though I wonder if it would have been a different story if the other side won the elections?

500 Baht and the promise to rise the minimum salary to 400 Baht and they'll vote them again.

[kimamey]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

But one of their campaign promises was to end all flooding and droughts. Someone posted a picture of the campaign poster in another thread but I can't seem to find it. Yet another promise Phua Thai obviously can't deliver on...

Yes I remember that but I looked and it's not there now (http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/503685-record-floods-test-new-thailand-prime-minister/ post #2). Maybe a copyright issue which is why I'm not inserting the picture here.

If you Google pheu thai goodbye flooding under images you should find it.

Of course I don't think they said when they would do this and it would be unrealistic to expect this to happen immediately. But then I think it's an unrealistic promise anyway. I suppose it's more snappy than "We'll try to improve our flood management"

[monkfish]

Isn't it great that the floods, along with the subsequent deaths and major hardship that have been afflicted to so many people, have appeared at such a time so that we can use them to sit in our armchairs and point fingers at those in power.

The fact is that flooding, along with other natural catastrophes on this scale has caught many a government out in recent years. You simply can't prepare for it. Well, you can. If you want to throw a lot of money at a problem that may or may not happen. We've been caught out in the UK in recent years by floods, heavy snowfall, you name it....

Some people seem to think that governments have a magic wand that they can simply wave and make it all go away, and if they don't, they must somehow be at fault. They're either ill prepared or simply don't care about about the people who are affected. The truth is that it costs a lot of money to prepare for disasters such as this, and governments have to make decisions as to whether it's worth it or not. It's very easy, and dare I say, lazy, to wait for the event to happen and then sit there apportioning blame.

If floods on this scale happened frequently, it would be reasonable to ask why governments were ill prepared, but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale. I'm sure there will always be things that governments could have done better in hindsight, and I'm sure that in hindsight, bad decisions may have been made, but right now people are dying, losing their homes and businesses, being uprooted and having to deal with things we only have nightmares about.

I just don't think it's helpful or constructive to sit in our armchairs pointing fingers right now. The immediate concern should be dealing with the immediate problem.

It's far too premature and disrespectful to the victims to be sitting there in our comfortable armchairs screaming "I told you so..." at whichever government from whatever country we wish to vent our spleen at.

Well the Dutch Government had a magic wand and they waved it very effectively. The UK hasn't done so badly either by their reaction to the horrendous flooding along the East Coast that occurred in early 1953. They also had the foresight to build the Thames barrier. Flooding in Thailand is an annual event and has been for hundreds of years. I blame successive Thai Governments for the current situation and the present bunch of morons for their tardy response to what to most sentient people saw coming several days ago.

At lest we do not have top put up with the fat swine now who once stated that there would be no flooding in Bangkok and when the waters rose angrily told reporters that what they saw wasn't floods but merely heavy rainfall. Shades of the Goon Show and Hellzapoppin!. I'm just waiting for some red shirt to suggest that Thaksin be brought back so that he can employ his Knut (Canute) like powers to relieve the situation - and continue with his Herculean task of sorting out Bangkok's traffic problems as promised.

If you remember 1953 you will probably also remember 1995 when the River Rhine flooded leaving much of Europe under water including Holland.

The only way the Dutch were able to prevent a massive catastrophe was to use millions of sandbags to raise the banks on their Dykes system, pretty much the same tactic as Thailand is employing.

Not sure about the metrics but I doubt even the Dutch system would be able to handle the amount of water Thailand is getting.

Anyway Bangkok is built on a flood plane so flooding has to be expected.

Edited October 10, 2011 by monkfish

[wana]

Isn't it great that the floods, along with the subsequent deaths and major hardship that have been afflicted to so many people, have appeared at such a time so that we can use them to sit in our armchairs and point fingers at those in power.

The fact is that flooding, along with other natural catastrophes on this scale has caught many a government out in recent years. You simply can't prepare for it. Well, you can. If you want to throw a lot of money at a problem that may or may not happen. We've been caught out in the UK in recent years by floods, heavy snowfall, you name it....

Some people seem to think that governments have a magic wand that they can simply wave and make it all go away, and if they don't, they must somehow be at fault. They're either ill prepared or simply don't care about about the people who are affected. The truth is that it costs a lot of money to prepare for disasters such as this, and governments have to make decisions as to whether it's worth it or not. It's very easy, and dare I say, lazy, to wait for the event to happen and then sit there apportioning blame.

If floods on this scale happened frequently, it would be reasonable to ask why governments were ill prepared, but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale. I'm sure there will always be things that governments could have done better in hindsight, and I'm sure that in hindsight, bad decisions may have been made, but right now people are dying, losing their homes and businesses, being uprooted and having to deal with things we only have nightmares about.

I just don't think it's helpful or constructive to sit in our armchairs pointing fingers right now. The immediate concern should be dealing with the immediate problem.

It's far too premature and disrespectful to the victims to be sitting there in our comfortable armchairs screaming "I told you so..." at whichever government from whatever country we wish to vent our spleen at.

Well the Dutch Government had a magic wand and they waved it very effectively. The UK hasn't done so badly either by their reaction to the horrendous flooding along the East Coast that occurred in early 1953. They also had the foresight to build the Thames barrier. Flooding in Thailand is an annual event and has been for hundreds of years. I blame successive Thai Governments for the current situation and the present bunch of morons for their tardy response to what to most sentient people saw coming several days ago.

At lest we do not have top put up with the fat swine now who once stated that there would be no flooding in Bangkok and when the waters rose angrily told reporters that what they saw wasn't floods but merely heavy rainfall. Shades of the Goon Show and Hellzapoppin!. I'm just waiting for some red shirt to suggest that Thaksin be brought back so that he can employ his Knut (Canute) like powers to relieve the situation - and continue with his Herculean task of sorting out Bangkok's traffic problems as promised.

If you remember 1953 you will probably also remember 1995 when the River Rhine flooded leaving much of Europe under water including Holland.

The only way the Dutch were able to prevent a massive catastrophe was to use millions of sandbags to raise the banks on their Dykes system, pretty much the same tactic as Thailand is employing.

Not sure about the metrics but I doubt even the Dutch system would be able to handle the amount of water Thailand is getting.

Anyway Bangkok is built on a flood plane so flooding has to be expected.

why did thai houses ever stop being built up on sticks ? seems like they built them that way for hundreds of years because they knew they lived in a flood plain and would get flooded every so often

did thai people just forget what their ancestors have known for hundreds of years ?

[furyrider]

Flooding has been on the cards for quite some time but it only had just got the attention of the government. Shame on the administration.

Try to be a bit fairer.

They hyave only been in power a couple of months.

But one of their campaign promises was to end all flooding and droughts. Someone posted a picture of the campaign poster in another thread but I can't seem to find it. Yet another promise Phua Thai obviously can't deliver on...

Yes I remember that but I looked and it's not there now (http://www.thaivisa....prime-minister/ post #2). Maybe a copyright issue which is why I'm not inserting the picture here.

If you Google pheu thai goodbye flooding under images you should find it.

Of course I don't think they said when they would do this and it would be unrealistic to expect this to happen immediately. But then I think it's an unrealistic promise anyway. I suppose it's more snappy than "We'll try to improve our flood management"

Well it was a campaign promise. But the project would take years and billions to complete. But as normal most of you figure they could have done over the weekend.

[bkkjames]

Isn't it great that the floods, along with the subsequent deaths and major hardship that have been afflicted to so many people, have appeared at such a time so that we can use them to sit in our armchairs and point fingers at those in power.

The fact is that flooding, along with other natural catastrophes on this scale has caught many a government out in recent years. You simply can't prepare for it. Well, you can. If you want to throw a lot of money at a problem that may or may not happen. We've been caught out in the UK in recent years by floods, heavy snowfall, you name it....

Some people seem to think that governments have a magic wand that they can simply wave and make it all go away, and if they don't, they must somehow be at fault. They're either ill prepared or simply don't care about about the people who are affected. The truth is that it costs a lot of money to prepare for disasters such as this, and governments have to make decisions as to whether it's worth it or not. It's very easy, and dare I say, lazy, to wait for the event to happen and then sit there apportioning blame.

If floods on this scale happened frequently, it would be reasonable to ask why governments were ill prepared, but these recent floods are unprecedented in their scale. I'm sure there will always be things that governments could have done better in hindsight, and I'm sure that in hindsight, bad decisions may have been made, but right now people are dying, losing their homes and businesses, being uprooted and having to deal with things we only have nightmares about.

I just don't think it's helpful or constructive to sit in our armchairs pointing fingers right now. The immediate concern should be dealing with the immediate problem.

It's far too premature and disrespectful to the victims to be sitting there in our comfortable armchairs screaming "I told you so..." at whichever government from whatever country we wish to vent our spleen at.

Well the Dutch Government had a magic wand and they waved it very effectively. The UK hasn't done so badly either by their reaction to the horrendous flooding along the East Coast that occurred in early 1953. They also had the foresight to build the Thames barrier. Flooding in Thailand is an annual event and has been for hundreds of years. I blame successive Thai Governments for the current situation and the present bunch of morons for their tardy response to what to most sentient people saw coming several days ago.

At lest we do not have top put up with the fat swine now who once stated that there would be no flooding in Bangkok and when the waters rose angrily told reporters that what they saw wasn't floods but merely heavy rainfall. Shades of the Goon Show and Hellzapoppin!. I'm just waiting for some red shirt to suggest that Thaksin be brought back so that he can employ his Knut (Canute) like powers to relieve the situation - and continue with his Herculean task of sorting out Bangkok's traffic problems as promised.

If you remember 1953 you will probably also remember 1995 when the River Rhine flooded leaving much of Europe under water including Holland.

The only way the Dutch were able to prevent a massive catastrophe was to use millions of sandbags to raise the banks on their Dykes system, pretty much the same tactic as Thailand is employing.

Not sure about the metrics but I doubt even the Dutch system would be able to handle the amount of water Thailand is getting.

Anyway Bangkok is built on a flood plane so flooding has to be expected.

why did thai houses ever stop being built up on sticks ? seems like they built them that way for hundreds of years because they knew they lived in a flood plain and would get flooded every so often

did thai people just forget what their ancestors have known for hundreds of years ?

is that why they built them like that? all this time I thought they just like stairs.

[wana]

why did thai houses ever stop being built up on sticks ? seems like they built them that way for hundreds of years because they knew they lived in a flood plain and would get flooded every so often

did thai people just forget what their ancestors have known for hundreds of years ?

is that why they built them like that? all this time I thought they just like stairs.

they didnt have stairs ,they had ladders :jap:

[Scott]

A troll post and response to it have been deleted.

[Credo]

A voice of reason has now been heard. Prepare to evacuate. The current measures aren't working. At least we are beginning to get an idea of what to expect.

The government will be the lightening rod for all the failures, but it is the everyday civil servants who need a serious reprimand and to be sent to some very inactive posts. They should be used to it, since they seem to have been pretty inactive up to now.

There is an element of certainty to how fast flood waters travel. They should be able to predict in a rather narrow range when the water will arrive. It doesn't mean you can stop flooding, but it does mean you can be prepared... patients evacuated from hospitals, evacuation centers set up with food, water and medical facilities available.

[aussiebebe]

The Bangkok post had a great satirical cartoon about traditional vs modern house with the family of the latter dwelling sat on the roof, but the serious depths of flooding in some areas has rendered even traditional houses useless. 5 meters of flood water reaches up to the roof (or second floor if it has one) of a traditional house. That's extremely rare but has been testified to in some areas of some provinces.

[Tiffer]

Well, once again, it seems that the Kingdon of Thailand has failed to realise that all the savy solutions required to resolve all the issues of the country in one fell swoop can be found amoungst a small number of specialsts to be found on this site.

I guess that all these "foreign specialists" being based here and not in their home countries explains why other "developed" nations suffer natural disasters...

Now then, how does one spell Mississippi..?