Seven Bangkok Districts At Risk Of Flooding

[Pib]

Same story with Salaya...some places flooded; many places not. I drove through that area today on a trip back and forth to Nakorn Pathom.

[beano2274]

Nothing near the Mall Ngamwongwan yet, but loads of cars on the soi where I live, but someone said there is water down near Khae Lai.

[alexakap]

Nothing near the Mall Ngamwongwan yet, but loads of cars on the soi where I live, but someone said there is water down near Khae Lai.

Just drove there an hour ago.

Was dry as a bone (at that time).

[Pib]

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

This map really puts things into perspective. It'll be a miracle if inner Bangkok isn't flooded when this is over.

It sure does put it in perspective. And from my driving around in western Bangkok it seems to be pretty accurate. When listening/watching only news reports a person could think almost all of Bangkok is under a meter of water with the exception of the central/high rise part of Bangkok, but fortunately many parts of greater Bangkok are still low and dry (i..e, unflooded). Hopefully we are seeing/have just seen the peak of the flooding...keeping my fingers crossed and sandbags ready.

[beano2274]

Nothing near the Mall Ngamwongwan yet, but loads of cars on the soi where I live, but someone said there is water down near Khae Lai.

Just drove there an hour ago.

Was dry as a bone (at that time).

Good news the.

[osiboy]

so with all this happening,........how is the baht stronger today ??,............mai kowjai loey !

[zydeco]

Same story with Salaya...some places flooded; many places not. I drove through that area today on a trip back and forth to Nakorn Pathom.

I usually go over there just about every week day, but I didn't do so today. I know the area has been fairly dry--until yesterday--except for the two or three lanes of Sai 4 in front of Mahidol, which are flooded because the president of Mahidol has sandbagged the main entrance to the university. Within the university, behind the levees, everything is dry. But that area is just north of Thawee Wattanna in Nakhon Pathom, so I don't know if there are eventual plans to let it flood. Personally, I live just off Phutthamonthon Sai 3 to the south on the "safe" side and the only flooding I've seen was about 6-8 cm in the street a few days ago when the downpour was so bad it took the water a couple of hours to runoff. The neighbor across from me is the only one in the moobahn to sandbag to the entrance to his home and today and last night he didn't even bother to put the sandbags back in place in front of his gate. Either it's going to be safe or he knows that sandbagging will be useless. I hope it's the former.

[Sheryl]

Nonthaburi entirely flooded (apparently)

According to the Thais in the office Pinklao next up - take that for what it's worth (certainly not a confirmation on my part).

Incorrect...and hopefully it will stay that way. While many parts are flooded; many parts are not. Around 4pm I drove through the portion of Nonthaburi which the #9 Outer Ring Road runs through and it looks the same as yesterday. And I live in Khet Talingchan directly south of Nonthaburi and which borders Nonthaburi and practically nothing in Talingchan is flooded...sure we (Khet Talingchan) have some low spots in roads where some water has pooled like most everywhere else, but no widespread flooding....and that is confirmed by the govt flood map identified below.

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

I'm between Bhuddamonthon Sai 2 and 3 on the Salathmasop side near the railway - i hear from Sai 4 outwards has flooded but as yet the roads here are ok down to Kanchanapisek and beyond. Reading yesterday's news suggested a metre of water could come down from the north and over the top of the concrete embankment which usually stands 2.5 metres above water level but now the water is at 1.90 ... its a bit hard to get any information on this part of TaweeWattana

The flooding is over in Salaya, I think.

Mahidol just informed its students it is closing the Salaya campus through next week in expectation of massive flooding.

[wintermute]

so with all this happening,........how is the baht stronger today ??,............mai kowjai loey !

Because many western countries are going through financial banking and economic crisis at the moment. 5 years ago the bottom would have dropped out of the baht.

[zydeco]

Incorrect...and hopefully it will stay that way. While many parts are flooded; many parts are not. Around 4pm I drove through the portion of Nonthaburi which the #9 Outer Ring Road runs through and it looks the same as yesterday. And I live in Khet Talingchan directly south of Nonthaburi and which borders Nonthaburi and practically nothing in Talingchan is flooded...sure we (Khet Talingchan) have some low spots in roads where some water has pooled like most everywhere else, but no widespread flooding....and that is confirmed by the govt flood map identified below.

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

I'm between Bhuddamonthon Sai 2 and 3 on the Salathmasop side near the railway - i hear from Sai 4 outwards has flooded but as yet the roads here are ok down to Kanchanapisek and beyond. Reading yesterday's news suggested a metre of water could come down from the north and over the top of the concrete embankment which usually stands 2.5 metres above water level but now the water is at 1.90 ... its a bit hard to get any information on this part of TaweeWattana

The flooding is over in Salaya, I think.

Mahidol just informed its students it is closing the Salaya campus through next week in expectation of massive flooding.

"Massive" of course is relative. But I'm not sure it exactly fits, there, because the international college at Mahidol has also announced it has just opened an evacuation center for staff and students who are flooded out. Still, better safe than sorry. And just about everything associated with this flood has been underestimated by the authorities.

[Pib]

Personally, I live just off Phutthamonthon Sai 3 to the south on the "safe" side and the only flooding I've seen was about 6-8 cm in the street a few days ago when the downpour was so bad it took the water a couple of hours to runoff.

You must be talking about that Saturday night rain from about 6pm to 8:30pm over the western Bangkok....wow, that was one of the hardest rains I've experienced in Thailand....all the main soi's in my moobaan overflowed (first time I've seen that in the three years living here) and these main soi's have 8 inch high curbs...and for the first time about 1 to 2 inches of water occurred on the side soi's leading into the main soi's...the side soi's are about 10-12 inches higher than the main streets. And even before these main and side soi's can begin flooding the canals/water ponds within the moobaan had to fill-up....normally these water features/ponds keep any flooding from occurring in the soi's. There was no flooding of any home/yards as they are 1 to 2 feet higher than the side soi's. Within an hour the side soi's were dry again and by the next morning most of the main soi's were dry....and by afternoon they were all dry again. Normally the rain drains off the main soi's pretty fast but with the ground saturated and the canals at higher than normal levels it took longer for the soi's to drain off. The last few days of pretty dry weather in my part of Bangkok is a welcomed event.

[culicine]

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

This map really puts things into perspective. It'll be a miracle if inner Bangkok isn't flooded when this is over.

Yes all that water has to go somewhere - south to BKK and all its surrounding canals. I saw it last nite; my village flooded in a matter of hours with our main highway becoming a river. Only military vehicles can pass. This is Pak kret, Nonthaburi. The floor of my house is at 3 metres; supposedly the water is 10 cm about floor level now, but I wasn't hanging around to see how high it would get.

[Pib]

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

This map really puts things into perspective. It'll be a miracle if inner Bangkok isn't flooded when this is over.

Yes all that water has to go somewhere - south to BKK and all its surrounding canals. I saw it last nite; my village flooded in a matter of hours with our main highway becoming a river. Only military vehicles can pass. This is Pak kret, Nonthaburi. The floor of my house is at 3 metres; supposedly the water is 10 cm about floor level now, but I wasn't hanging around to see how high it would get.

Sorry to hear that. When you say the floor of your house is at 3 meters, do you mean above road level, sea level, etc.?

Edited October 19, 2011 by Pib

[beano2274]

Yes all that water has to go somewhere - south to BKK and all its surrounding canals. I saw it last nite; my village flooded in a matter of hours with our main highway becoming a river. Only military vehicles can pass. This is Pak kret, Nonthaburi. The floor of my house is at 3 metres; supposedly the water is 10 cm about floor level now, but I wasn't hanging around to see how high it would get.

Where in Pakkred?

Edited October 19, 2011 by metisdead

[unanimosity]

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra seems to be the only person with something like a plan and a team working to do all they can for the people they represent unlike the puppet Prime minister and her bunch of buffoons

He is realistically the only guy with the absolute power to command a workforce.

I have to laugh to see that Mrs. Bird Flu cover up is having a say about potentially flooding Victory monument. I am sick to the back teeth of hearing from 'elected officials' who have absolutely no academic or practical knowledge of anything. Photo ops and walkabouts with wellies are all very heartening, but where is the irrigation department, where is the marine department, where is the agricultural department?

The people who actually know what can and cannot be done are silent, meanwhile, someone pipes up that the water should go out through Chachoengsao? It is too late, everyone has been navel gazing taking care of their little feifdoms (this is on a national and a local level) and now it is all coming home to roost. I can't imagine how many people knew that this was going to happen, but through incompetence and ommission, no one got the message across to the top that this was dam_n serious. The entire system is to blame, government officials without enough knowledge drowning out the voices of the knowledgeable, whilst the elected corrupt at the top wring their hands and say that we couldn't have known it was raining that much.

The blind leading the deaf and dumb.

You have to wonder how many bureaucrats in the emergency revenue stream will make millions or billions in the recovery phase with money flowing in from other countries and little scrutiny over how emergency domestic tax monies are doled out. They are kind of like the doctor that makes money when you are sick. The difference being that the doctor may actually contribute to your recovery whereas the bureaucrats just skim 30%. What is their motivation for preparing, preventing, or shortening the misery?

[stevotoo]

I would like to know how much water was behind the dams before the heavy rains started. You would hope they would have been drained but is it a possibility that they were already full, maybe to maximize electricity production?

[zydeco]

Personally, I live just off Phutthamonthon Sai 3 to the south on the "safe" side and the only flooding I've seen was about 6-8 cm in the street a few days ago when the downpour was so bad it took the water a couple of hours to runoff.

You must be talking about that Saturday night rain from about 6pm to 8:30pm over the western Bangkok....wow, that was one of the hardest rains I've experienced in Thailand....all the main soi's in my moobaan overflowed (first time I've seen that in the three years living here) and these main soi's have 8 inch high curbs...and for the first time about 1 to 2 inches of water occurred on the side soi's leading into the main soi's...the side soi's are about 10-12 inches higher than the main streets. And even before these main and side soi's can begin flooding the canals/water ponds within the moobaan had to fill-up....normally these water features/ponds keep any flooding from occurring in the soi's. There was no flooding of any home/yards as they are 1 to 2 feet higher than the side soi's. Within an hour the side soi's were dry again and by the next morning most of the main soi's were dry....and by afternoon they were all dry again. Normally the rain drains off the main soi's pretty fast but with the ground saturated and the canals at higher than normal levels it took longer for the soi's to drain off. The last few days of pretty dry weather in my part of Bangkok is a welcomed event.

Yes, that was it. Frankly, it's made me skittish. Just today there was a brief, light shower for about 20 minutes with a little thunder. But since the Big One, I'm on edge. Heck, this whole flood has me on edge. I've been through hurricanes and tornadoes, but the anxiety of simply not knowing for sure what is coming with this sea of water can be a bit stressful. With a tornado, things are over with in less than a minute. You're either alive or you're dead. Hurricanes may last a day. But this flood just seems to stretch on forever. And if your house does get flooded, then you start to wonder for how long. The people in Ayutthaya are going on about a month now, aren't they?

Edited October 19, 2011 by zydeco

[culicine]

Yes all that water has to go somewhere - south to BKK and all its surrounding canals. I saw it last nite; my village flooded in a matter of hours with our main highway becoming a river. Only military vehicles can pass. This is Pak kret, Nonthaburi. The floor of my house is at 3 metres; supposedly the water is 10 cm about floor level now, but I wasn't hanging around to see how high it would get.

Where in Pakkred?

This is corner of Chaiyareuk and Ratchpreuk roads. many villages here. Only the very expensive villages have a good pumping system and sandbagging - really built up. We had 3 feet of sandbags at the entrance but the water just came over it. The lower part of ratchapreuk is still OK, but the northern part is really bad.

[Xonax]

anyone knows any place to listen 100.5fm online ?

Why not try the radio?

[happysoul]

Hello,

I guess i'm not posting in the good topic but will give it a try... (moderators, if you feel like moving my post, go a head).

Has any expats thought of organizing a help topic, somewhere people can suggest their help, offer car service, boat service, jet ski service, offer rice or whatever to help people like elderly or whoever is flooded and need help ?

Unfortunatly i'm not in Thailand yet, will get there in 18 days but if situation is still bad I would be pleased to bring food and other things needed to people that cannot get them.

Don't know if it's a crazy suggestion but without trying you'll never know...

Looking forward to get comments.

Tchokdeekrap

[Pib]

Personally, I live just off Phutthamonthon Sai 3 to the south on the "safe" side and the only flooding I've seen was about 6-8 cm in the street a few days ago when the downpour was so bad it took the water a couple of hours to runoff.

You must be talking about that Saturday night rain from about 6pm to 8:30pm over the western Bangkok....wow, that was one of the hardest rains I've experienced in Thailand....all the main soi's in my moobaan overflowed (first time I've seen that in the three years living here) and these main soi's have 8 inch high curbs...and for the first time about 1 to 2 inches of water occurred on the side soi's leading into the main soi's...the side soi's are about 10-12 inches higher than the main streets. And even before these main and side soi's can begin flooding the canals/water ponds within the moobaan had to fill-up....normally these water features/ponds keep any flooding from occurring in the soi's. There was no flooding of any home/yards as they are 1 to 2 feet higher than the side soi's. Within an hour the side soi's were dry again and by the next morning most of the main soi's were dry....and by afternoon they were all dry again. Normally the rain drains off the main soi's pretty fast but with the ground saturated and the canals at higher than normal levels it took longer for the soi's to drain off. The last few days of pretty dry weather in my part of Bangkok is a welcomed event.

Yes, that was it. Frankly, it's made me skittish. Just today there was a brief, light shower for about 20 minutes with a little thunder. But since the Big One, I'm on edge. Heck, this whole flood has me on edge. I've been through hurricanes and tornadoes, but the anxiety of simply not knowing for sure what is coming with this sea of water can be a bit stressful. With a tornado, things are over with in less than a minute. You're either alive or you're dead. Hurricanes may last a day. But this flood just seems to stretch on forever. And if your house does get flooded, then you start to wonder for how long. The people in Ayutthaya are going on about a month now, aren't they?

Yeap, I know what you mean...I've lived in places where hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes occurred and experienced several hurricanes & typhoons, but I really wasn't worried about a rising wall of water coming down the street with little warning which could happen with the current flooding situation, especially if some dyke/sandbag barrier breaks or gets thrown down by angry, flooded residents. The wife and I were out walking the dogs around 3pm when dark clouds and shower came on fast...I thought to myself that I sure hope this don't turn into an all night rain with all the flooding going on....it definitely don't take much to make a person skittish under the current flooding situation.

[alexakap]

Unfortunatly i'm not in Thailand yet, will get there in 18 days but if situation is still bad I would be pleased to bring food and other things needed to people that cannot get them.

Don't forget to obtain a work permit prior doing anything!!!

PS: it is just an irony to th govt. Thanks for your offer anyway.

[arkom]

Nothing near the Mall Ngamwongwan yet, but loads of cars on the soi where I live, but someone said there is water down near Khae Lai.

Just drove there an hour ago.

Was dry as a bone (at that time).

Good news the.

Same with me, but I live on Pantip side. Still dry but lots of traffic on Ngam Wong Wan.

[culicine]

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

This map really puts things into perspective. It'll be a miracle if inner Bangkok isn't flooded when this is over.

Yes all that water has to go somewhere - south to BKK and all its surrounding canals. I saw it last nite; my village flooded in a matter of hours with our main highway becoming a river. Only military vehicles can pass. This is Pak kret, Nonthaburi. The floor of my house is at 3 metres; supposedly the water is 10 cm about floor level now, but I wasn't hanging around to see how high it would get.

Sorry to hear that. When you say the floor of your house is at 3 meters, do you mean above road level, sea level, etc.?

Sorry, I replied to this, but it seems not to have been posted. I was led to understand that the 3m is relative to the local river level. So given the water flows easily over the surface, a 3 m river level would put the water at my floor level. I don't think it's as simple as that because of all the damming and diking going on. The water flowed in really fast and filled my village in a matter of 12 hours from it being 1 m above the local klong. I heard these dams were deliberately broken. The problem with impeding the flow is it will take ages for many areas to drain properly. Some peoples houses could be flooded for a month or more.

Check out the link for the river height at Pak Kret. http://hydrology.rid.go.th/wmsc/cctvpakkhet.htm

It's hard to read at night time but its showing the river level at about 3 metres. That means it's increased significantly over the last two days. Before that, it was fairly stable (2.7-2.9 depending on the tide)

[MaxYakov]

Here's a link to the government's flood website which includes maps of the flooded areas in Thailand....you can zoom in and out just like using Google Earth....be sure to let the map loaded 100% as the blue color coding for the flooded areas only appears in the last few percent of the map load. Link Other areas/links of the govt web site also identifies roads locations which have some flooding like two low spots on the portion of #9 I just drove through...low spots flooded with a few inches of water for several hundred meters...enough to slow traffic to a near crawl for a kilometer or so.

This map really puts things into perspective. It'll be a miracle if inner Bangkok isn't flooded when this is over.

Site requires M$ Silverllight and I'm running Apple. Guess I'll just have to look out the window.

Hope's the only ticket we have, I guess. Well ... there are the Water Deities. Where's their temple while I don't have have to get my entire lower body wet getting there?

[serenitynow]

Hello,

I guess i'm not posting in the good topic but will give it a try... (moderators, if you feel like moving my post, go a head).

Has any expats thought of organizing a help topic, somewhere people can suggest their help, offer car service, boat service, jet ski service, offer rice or whatever to help people like elderly or whoever is flooded and need help ?

Unfortunatly i'm not in Thailand yet, will get there in 18 days but if situation is still bad I would be pleased to bring food and other things needed to people that cannot get them.

Don't know if it's a crazy suggestion but without trying you'll never know...

Looking forward to get comments.

Tchokdeekrap

It's a good idea and thanks for posting it. To answer your question I doubt very much if there is any structured organization like you write about. OTOH many of us will know people affected by these floods both in the North and Central regions. Speaking for myself and I'm sure many others, we open our homes larders, sort through clothes, provide transportation when we can. We cxurrently have quite a bit of rice on hand but their really isn't any local need. If I find a mechanism to get ti to Central area persons in need I will. I'm not a great believer in organizations, though I imagine there are a few good ones out there. Maybe you'll start one yourself! When you do feel free to call on me.

[happysoul]

Unfortunatly i'm not in Thailand yet, will get there in 18 days but if situation is still bad I would be pleased to bring food and other things needed to people that cannot get them.

Don't forget to obtain a work permit prior doing anything!!!

PS: it is just an irony to th govt. Thanks for your offer anyway.

Whoooo, that would be the "cerise sur le gateau" as we say in my mother tongue. Getting arrested for illegal work when giving out food to flooded elderly 5555

Why I came to that is : first, I cannot get in touch with a good thai friend that is father since the beginning of the year and lives with his family in Ayuthaya and that for 2 weeks now. Also, another friend from Ayuthaya that now lives in Australia was seeking for help for her granparents in the Sena area (Ayuthaya).

And second but not least, I read so many people complaning about flood management but I never read that those people went to help improve the situation. I know that with just 2 hands you cannot do much, but with collaboration, a bit of money and a lot of will you can do much.

Also, my car is safe in Ratchaburi country side since 1 week, our house in Bkk is still dry (South Prawet), so we are up to now lucky. Why not share a bit of this luck by helping others ?

If any collaboration is started on here, I will for sure give a hand as soon as i put a feet in LOS. As expats, why not try to be less shelfish than we are in our home countries.

Cheers

[alexakap]

Same with me, but I live on Pantip side.

I remember that as "Banglumpoo - Marketplace for rent". The Panthip could be the only one - there @Petburi rd, 5555

Still dry but lots of traffic on Ngam Wong Wan.

Nothing new here. It is jammed on daily basis since the last century. I ever had an accident on the bridge in front of The Mall NgWW....also long ago...

Edited October 19, 2011 by alexakap

[Scott]

Thanks for the suggestion. There are a number of organizations that are providing relief at this time. The best time for an assessment will be once the immediate crisis is over.

Right now, the logistics of getting aid to people is a little difficult and the flooding is moving around.

It will be worth watching for the aftermath of the flooding. The issue of lost jobs, food supplies and prevention and treatment of flood related disease may require some significant help.

[MaxYakov]

so with all this happening,........how is the baht stronger today ??,............mai kowjai loey !

Incredibly, it's strengthened by .24 against the USD since 10/10 - THB/USD Historic Exchange Rates