Ayutthaya Left To Wash Away

[KKvampire]

My home under four feet of water for 10 days , along with thousands of others,Its a rented property and now time to leave it completely, By which I mean I left 10 days ago with possesions and now no plan to return, and the reason?

There is no plan whatsever from government .local or national to drain any water. It's a stagnant water area with all the water born diseases that come with it, The Ancient Capital will die because of the incompetence of the country's leaders( and I use the noun loosely)

[leo12345]

I wander if any SC ASSET homes are flooded?

[ExpatOilWorker]

Do u have any pictures we can see?

Edited October 17, 2011 by ExpatOilWorker

[KKvampire]

Do u have any pictures we cab see?

No I haven't , we had a few hours warning on the day and with 16 hours it went from a trickle to 4 feet , scary. We were too busy escaping with our belongings.

[ExpatOilWorker]

Do u have any pictures we can see?

No I haven't , we had a few hours warning on the day and with 16 hours it went from a trickle to 4 feet , scary. We were too busy escaping with our belongings.

Bummer, pictures are worth a 1000 words, so you have some typing to do.............

[WarpSpeed]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

Edited October 17, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[KKvampire]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

Its called "Planning" , If the water was drained south of Ayutthaya to Bangkok and out to sea then it would allow the city to remove some of the water in its completely immersed city.

[thaicbr]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

I think the fact that no information is generally available is the biggest problem.. other than various ministers saying everything is ok...then saying ..oops sorry we got that wrong.

They need to start thinking...how are we going to alleviate the flooding and clean up as quickly as possible. There are 400,000 people not working and the PROBABLY the same amount again in flooded houses.... waiting.

[WarpSpeed]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

I think the fact that no information is generally available is the biggest problem.. other than various ministers saying everything is ok...then saying ..oops sorry we got that wrong.

They need to start thinking...how are we going to alleviate the flooding and clean up as quickly as possible. There are 400,000 people not working and the PROBABLY the same amount again in flooded houses.... waiting.

I can see this as I share this frustration but I've no clue what the OP thinks the government should do with billions of gallons of water in just 4 days or even a month?... They are already moving as much water as possible without creating more misery and cost but it seems the OP is more on about miracles to be performed and only single minded short term thinking based on his personal frustration which is in part understandable..

The reality however is just that sometimes as with the tsunami of 2004 mother nature takes no prisoners and is just formidable and humbling while humanity is puny..

Edited October 17, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[eljeque]

This disaster was created by bad planning of the year's water.

They have been dong everything possible to SAVE BANGKOK as of late.

Everyone else be damned.

If I were the OP, I would feel the same way.

This did not happen all of a sudden.

The State has had time to prepare and it did not. It has been raining hard all season, and they State did not run through all of the possible scenarios which it might encounter.

This is not a tsunami arriving with only a few hours or less notice, this is the accumulation of water over many months time period.

This is why it is always good to rent here. Nobody knows the future.

Edited October 17, 2011 by eljeque

[serenitynow]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

I think the fact that no information is generally available is the biggest problem.. other than various ministers saying everything is ok...then saying ..oops sorry we got that wrong.

They need to start thinking...how are we going to alleviate the flooding and clean up as quickly as possible. There are 400,000 people not working and the PROBABLY the same amount again in flooded houses.... waiting.

I can see this as I share this frustration but I've no clue what the OP thinks the government should do with billions of gallons of water in just 4 days or even a month?... They are already moving as much water as possible without creating more misery and cost but it seems the OP is more on about miracles to be performed and only single minded short term thinking based on his personal frustration which is in part understandable..

The reality however is just that sometimes as with the tsunami of 2004 mother nature takes no prisoners and is just formidable and humbling while humanity is puny..

Let's say I agree with you that there was absolutely nothing the government could do to mitigate the damage caused by these floods ( I don't BTW). It IS the government's job to provide relief from these floods to Thai people though, wouldn't you agree? In all the myriad of reports and photos that have come out so far, do you see the government helping ANYONE? More often than not they are feeding the desperate public false and misleading information which only compounds their travails and has led to untold loss of life,property, sickness and suffering.

[WarpSpeed]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

I think the fact that no information is generally available is the biggest problem.. other than various ministers saying everything is ok...then saying ..oops sorry we got that wrong.

They need to start thinking...how are we going to alleviate the flooding and clean up as quickly as possible. There are 400,000 people not working and the PROBABLY the same amount again in flooded houses.... waiting.

I can see this as I share this frustration but I've no clue what the OP thinks the government should do with billions of gallons of water in just 4 days or even a month?... They are already moving as much water as possible without creating more misery and cost but it seems the OP is more on about miracles to be performed and only single minded short term thinking based on his personal frustration which is in part understandable..

The reality however is just that sometimes as with the tsunami of 2004 mother nature takes no prisoners and is just formidable and humbling while humanity is puny..

Let's say I agree with you that there was absolutely nothing the government could do to mitigate the damage caused by these floods ( I don't BTW). It IS the government's job to provide relief from these floods to Thai people though, wouldn't you agree? In all the myriad of reports and photos that have come out so far, do you see the government helping ANYONE? More often than not they are feeding the desperate public false and misleading information which only compounds their travails and has led to untold loss of life,property, sickness and suffering.

Goodness I don't even have the energy to answer this it's so far off base.. This government has only been in office 3 months and doesn't even necessarily have all the cabinet posts filled yet..

As for your second nonsensical paragraph it'd do you some good to Google that yourself as it seems there is thousands of people being evacuated, housed and fed in a number of places and the current dykes and such that were first constructed to save other communities and points north are now saving the last bastion and economic center in Bangkok trying to salvage some small victory out of this.. I read a lot of bitching and whining but no offerings of solutions only if's and but's all hindsight and Monday morning quarterbacking but is that reality?? What is the solution now in front of us/them?? What's happened has happened and dwelling on it serves no purpose whatsoever, make actionable suggestions at least that's serves a therapeutic catharsis of sorts..

The naivety here about the magnitude and amount of water in this disaster is stunning..

I wonder how many here who have been/are doubting and cynical about the effects of global warming are going to be saying in ten or so years that the governments all knew, why didn't they do something? When none of those same people believe it's happening even though it's right in front of you... These are EXACTLY the symptoms that were predicted are going to happen and worsen over the next decades. But your doubt and skepticism is what fuels those decisions high up so if you're nothing but cynics they'll follow suit... Think about it.

Edited October 17, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[WarpSpeed]

This disaster was created by bad planning of the year's water.

They have been dong everything possible to SAVE BANGKOK as of late.

Everyone else be damned.

If I were the OP, I would feel the same way.

This did not happen all of a sudden.

The State has had time to prepare and it did not. It has been raining hard all season, and they State did not run through all of the possible scenarios which it might encounter.

This is why it is always good to rent here. Nobody knows the future.

Yes and certainly they should have consulted Nostradamus in order to predict the full extent of the rainfall in that time as I understand it there was no visits from God telling them to build an arc ... During that time how many other major issues including a change of government have they faced ?

Your last sentence I agree with 100%...

Edited October 24, 2011 by metisdead
Do not modify someone else's post in your quoted reply, either with font or color changes.

[kennalder]

WarpSpeed has made some good points. Not often we see clear thinking on this forum. I would add, there is no need to defend the current government, due to its short time in office. This lack of planning has been going on for decades.

Some areas of the globe can expect a 100 year flood every few years from now on. Perhaps this area is one of them. If you want to live near the ocean, at or below sea level, especially near the equator, expect more of this. The long term plan should be to migrate BKK to higher ground. Can you say Atlantis?

[cobra]

The core issue is living on ground that's just a few feet above sea level,

From the dikes of Holland, to levees in Louisianna,

flooding will always be a problem,

[AyG]

This flooding isn't a one-off event for Ayutthaya. There's some flooding pretty well every year, and major floods every decade or so (1975 and 2000 from memory were the last really bad years - though neither was as bad as the current situation).

After the flooding the authorities will dredge the klongs for a few months, and then things get "back to normal". That's all they've ever done.

There has been no serious attempt to manage the water flow in and around Ayutthaya.

I'm no expert, but they could have built large, new canals to drain water from the central plains to the sea and widened/deepened existing ones. They could have installed barriers on these canals to stop sea water being driving inland by high tides and storms. They could have installed large pumps to speed water on its way. They could have straightened some very twisty rivers to speed water flow. They could have built massive reservoirs to which excess water could be diverted. There's a lot they could have done, but they have done nothing. So Ayutthaya is under water yet again.

[h90]

The sad thing is in a few years the same politicians will hand out money and promise nonsense and will get elected again.

[draggons]

Our house outside Ayutthaya. Been like this for 4 weeks now. Was ok to start with as the water was flowing quiet quickly but has been sitting getting more and more stagnent for the last week or so. Can see a few problems with disease arising if it doesn't shift soon.

[AmeriThai]

Our house outside Ayutthaya. Been like this for 4 weeks now. Was ok to start with as the water was flowing quiet quickly but has been sitting getting more and more stagnent for the last week or so. Can see a few problems with disease arising if it doesn't shift soon.

Draggons, that's a really sad photo to see of your house. What's the water depth? I'd guess at least 4 or 5 feet. Other potential problems that could develop later related to mold and maybe sewage. What direction from the city is the house?

Our son-in-law's elderly mother's house is in the city, fairly close to Wat Mahathat. In the past, the house has been flooded to a depth of at least 4-5 feet from traces of the mud stain on the outside walls. I can only imagine what it must be like now. Everyone at the house has been safely evacuated.

Edited October 19, 2011 by AmeriThai

[maloyd1]

Do u have any pictures we can see?

The attachment is a Satalite Radar picture from Facebook Site of Michael Cota.

Hope Micheal does not mind me sharing it on TV.

It shows the extent of the flooding and from what I can see it would have taken many years of planning and possibly Millions or Billions of Baht to plug all the possible places where this amount of water found its way out of rivers and dykes etc onto the land.

I do understand that more could have been done in forward planning to eleviate the situation but I think some flooding was inevitable.

What needs to be done now is to get the water flowing out to sea as fast as possible.

Not an easy task given the only path is through Bangkok with the possibility of causing flooding in localised areas in the city.

The controling authorities must bite the bullet and get on with the task even if it does cause minor flooding in the city.

Sypathies for all those affected by the flooding. Lets hope leasons are learned and plans put into action to prevent a recurrance in future years.

[KRS1]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

I think the fact that no information is generally available is the biggest problem.. other than various ministers saying everything is ok...then saying ..oops sorry we got that wrong.

They need to start thinking...how are we going to alleviate the flooding and clean up as quickly as possible. There are 400,000 people not working and the PROBABLY the same amount again in flooded houses.... waiting.

I can see this as I share this frustration but I've no clue what the OP thinks the government should do with billions of gallons of water in just 4 days or even a month?... They are already moving as much water as possible without creating more misery and cost but it seems the OP is more on about miracles to be performed and only single minded short term thinking based on his personal frustration which is in part understandable..

The reality however is just that sometimes as with the tsunami of 2004 mother nature takes no prisoners and is just formidable and humbling while humanity is puny..

I think the OP and many other people know what the situation is...you however should learn what compassion is and get some

Edited October 24, 2011 by sbk
flame removed

[WarpSpeed]

Our house outside Ayutthaya. Been like this for 4 weeks now. Was ok to start with as the water was flowing quiet quickly but has been sitting getting more and more stagnent for the last week or so. Can see a few problems with disease arising if it doesn't shift soon.

Draggons, that's a really sad photo to see of your house. What's the water depth? I'd guess at least 4 or 5 feet. Other potential problems that could develop later related to mold and maybe sewage. What direction from the city is the house?

Our son-in-law's elderly mother's house is in the city, fairly close to Wat Mahathat. In the past, the house has been flooded to a depth of at least 4-5 feet from traces of the mud stain on the outside walls. I can only imagine what it must be like now. Everyone at the house has been safely evacuated.

That is sad stuff but standing water at least indicates that it's peaked only to go down from there so hopefully you'll get back in soon..

[WarpSpeed]

I'm sorry to hear that OP and I sympathize but just where do you think the government can pump it and how long would that take in your experience?

Personally I think your anger is somewhat misdirected but understandable since mother nature hasn't a care of your complaints.

I think the fact that no information is generally available is the biggest problem.. other than various ministers saying everything is ok...then saying ..oops sorry we got that wrong.

They need to start thinking...how are we going to alleviate the flooding and clean up as quickly as possible. There are 400,000 people not working and the PROBABLY the same amount again in flooded houses.... waiting.

I can see this as I share this frustration but I've no clue what the OP thinks the government should do with billions of gallons of water in just 4 days or even a month?... They are already moving as much water as possible without creating more misery and cost but it seems the OP is more on about miracles to be performed and only single minded short term thinking based on his personal frustration which is in part understandable..

The reality however is just that sometimes as with the tsunami of 2004 mother nature takes no prisoners and is just formidable and humbling while humanity is puny..

I think the OP and many other people know what the situation is...you however should learn what compassion is and get some,

.. JFYI What have you personally done for anyone in this disaster?

Not that it's any of your business but so far I've helped several of my neighbors prepare their vehicles. Bought 2 truck loads of cooked rice from my neighbors who sell it at the market and have delivered it to Don Muang, bought an ice cream truck full of ice cream from my other neighbor who has the local ice cream franchise and went to deliver it to Don Muang for stressed out children so yeah you're right I've no compassion :jerk:

And I dare say that most anyone here is in a better financial position to help then we are.. I challenge you to do better and don't report back we don't care..

Edited October 24, 2011 by sbk

[AmeriThai]

That is sad stuff but standing water at least indicates that it's peaked only to go down from there so hopefully you'll get back in soon..

You're quite right WS. It's sad but it will go down. It won't be soon enough though. It's going to be a major mess to clean up, not to mention lost income and damage to rice fields. I have no idea if any livestock have perished or not. Snakes and rats will take shelter in some of the houses and buildings. With all the silty mud getting into the smallest cracks, nooks and crannys, it's hard to guess what the condition the base of many of the historical ruins will be.

[wandrinstar]

My sympathy to those affected, i lost all the pics of my Deceased Mom n Dad about 18 years ago in the Phitsanulok Floods,Along with all personal records. Who's to Blame.?. Well let me just say its not Mother Nature, she didn't build dams and build on flood plains. Neither did she profit from the Felling of Northern Trees.

[WarpSpeed]

WarpSpeed has made some good points. Not often we see clear thinking on this forum. I would add, there is no need to defend the current government, due to its short time in office. This lack of planning has been going on for decades.

Some areas of the globe can expect a 100 year flood every few years from now on. Perhaps this area is one of them. If you want to live near the ocean, at or below sea level, especially near the equator, expect more of this. The long term plan should be to migrate BKK to higher ground. Can you say Atlantis?

Cheers Kennalder. The truth and reality bites at times.. I'm also right in the middle of all of this with a family of 4 and unlike many here we have no where else to go or anyone to help us. I haven't mentioned this before because it's irrelevant IMO, we're also not asking for pity or expecting anyone else to help and that's the point. But we're no less on pins and needles then any of you not knowing what is coming next or when, just like so many others here..

I'm going to say too that I have never purchased, nor owned a house in a flood zone or a perceived flood zone that I didn't do all I could to understand how badly or if it may be effected under those circumstances so, I'm going to dole out the really hard truth here and say to every single person here complaining about the governments actions or inaction they themselves have to take some responsibility for not doing due diligence on the land or houses they bought either because teelak's family had some to sell cheaply or it was close to the family or just plain cheap and then not properly preparing it for this possibility I.E. stilted or a significantly raised foundation and surrounding area.

Now in defense of this truth many here will claim "yeah but we didn't know there was going to be an extreme mismanagement of resources coupled with a 50 year flood yada yada yada" but that doesn't fly as no one looks out for you BUT you and the government has the same crystal ball you do..

It's a tragedy and more so for most and I wish everyone a swift recovery but passing the buck and always expecting others to plan and protect you from yourselves is not reality nor responsibility... I hedge to say there have been a lot of hard lessons learned at many's expense and saying so is not a lack of compassion either it's just speaking the hard truth that everyone has been dancing around.. Flame on

Edited October 24, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[KKvampire]

Any news on Ayutthaya Island? My place is on the Island (temple area old city) and the last I saw was the capture of one of the Crocs that escaped ,( found very close to my place) Apparently the water is smelling badly . stagnant for more than 2 weeks, When are they going to shift the water?