Bangkok's West May Face Metre-Deep Flood

[Pib]

As of 29 Oct/Saturday my moobaan here in western Bangkok in Khet Talingchan is still dry. Khet Talingchan is on the eastern border Khet Thawee Wattana and on the western border of Khet Bangkok Noi and Khet Bangkok Yai. Thawee Wattana has been getting a lot of TV news coverage over the last two days due to the flooding.

There is a canal (Khlong Bang Ramat) directly behind my house which borders our moobaan....it is overflowing on the southern side since the canal wall is about 2 feet lower than the canal wall on the northern side that borders our village. The only reason our canal wall is higher is because the moobaan developer added to the height of the wall when building this part of the moobaan. I guessing the next 2 to 5 days will tell the story on how much water my moobaan will recieve...ankle deep....knee deep....waist deep....??? deep.

I'm in the camp of guessing ankle to knee deep worst case....sure hope I'm right....or sure hope I'm wrong and it stays low and dry. I sure know last night's rain storm from about 7-8pm flooded the streets and got many people watching the canal closely....but the streets drained off after a few hours and the neighborhood on the other side of the canal was under a few more inches of water. Yeap, hope my moobaan stays low and dry.

[siampolee]

our drivers have been returning telling us that they have had few problems as indeed their time sheets and the vehicle fuel consumption and kilometers covered show us.

Newermokey.

Did you not read this part of my post ?

It confirms that possibly that which you see on camera may be a darn sight more truthful than the utterances from F.R.O.C. who it seems didn't take notice of their own advice regarding flood situations and their own need to relocate rapidly

[skippybangkok]

flood.htm

Made this file with the help of another TV-er.

can see Chaopraya and canals clearly. Lardprao canal rises and falls with chaopraya

Skippy. thats excellent..well done to you both.. can i ask if you can put on the cameras that cover the exit roads. like the big c om yai camera at highway 4 and the other bkk exit routes. Then people can see how easy it is to leave.

well done again.

danbradster was the technical brain, i just had the concept...... was sick and tired of not knowing anything. This is a few hours delay, but better than most webs which are days behind.

As per the on OP, no not a joke, and yes, its not by the second up to date..... but if you can do better, your welcome to improve on it.

Thaicbr, if you can find the feed u want, i can easy add it. Look here for it..... (hope u read thai )canal / road feeds

p.s. if u have drop box, can view it from your iPhone if not at home ! Cool

Edited October 29, 2011 by skippybangkok

[Jing Joe]

There have been some suggested web camera sites but this one seems to be keeping up to date. Click on the map on the right goes to the area, bottom right has a "Map in English" box to tick, click on camera, click on the image and 4 up to date shots are shown. Not much traffic around.

The camera near the old airport shows flooding so I suppose the web cams can be believed.

http://traffic.thai.net/camera/

[thaicbr]

flood.htm

Made this file with the help of another TV-er.

can see Chaopraya and canals clearly. Lardprao canal rises and falls with chaopraya

Skippy. thats excellent..well done to you both.. can i ask if you can put on the cameras that cover the exit roads. like the big c om yai camera at highway 4 and the other bkk exit routes. Then people can see how easy it is to leave.

well done again.

danbradster was the technical brain, i just had the concept...... was sick and tired of not knowing anything. This is a few hours delay, but better than most webs which are days behind.

As per the on OP, no not a joke, and yes, its not by the second up to date..... but if you can do better, your welcome to improve on it.

Thaicbr, if you can find the feed u want, i can easy add it. Look here for it..... (hope u read thai )canal / road feeds

p.s. if u have drop box, can view it from your iPhone if not at home ! Cool

this one.................... http://hermes.traffy.in.th/i/showpics.php?cctvid=479

and this one ...............http://hermes.traffy.in.th/i/showpics.php?cctvid=480

They are both inbound and outbound on route 4 / phetkasem rd at Om yai near Big C. As far as i know this is the only route out of BKK toward the west... Thanks

[theanimaster]

How the Hell can we who live here in Thailand, really believe these incompetent so called, “Government officials such as Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and the current PM of Thailand”. They both contract themselves on every point and don’t think.

Leave it to the people to interpret what they see and need to do.

Reminds me of the movie, Planet of the Apes,” where the apes think they are smarter than everyone else.

How DARE you insult The Apes!

Edited October 29, 2011 by theanimaster

[h90]

How the Hell can we who live here in Thailand, really believe these incompetent so called, “Government officials such as Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and the current PM of Thailand”. They both contract themselves on every point and don’t think.

Leave it to the people to interpret what they see and need to do.

Reminds me of the movie, Planet of the Apes,” where the apes think they are smarter than everyone else.

Actual the Bangkok Governor is the only one who came with useful informations.

[Pib]

They are both inbound and outbound on route 4 / phetkasem rd at Om yai near Big C. As far as i know this is the only route out of BKK toward the west... Thanks

This morning between 8am and about noon I did a round-trip on Route 4/Phetkasen from BangKhai (Bangkok) to Nakhon Pathom. A dry road the whole way. Traffic was lite on the trip to Nakhorn Pathom/going west at around 8 to 9am and not too heavy on the way back to Bangkok/BangKhai at 11am to noon. Only took 45-60 minutes each way...not bad at all considering the distances and getting through all the stop lights.

But the traffic going west to Nakhon Pathom at noon was very heavy....a long traffic jam just due to heavy traffic and all the stop lights; not due to any flooding. Glad I started this roadtrip early in the morning as an afternoon trip would have taken much, much longer....and during the whole afternoon trip I would have thought flooded roads was causing the delay when in fact it was just heavy traffic and stop lights.

[BuckarooBanzai]

How the Hell can we who live here in Thailand, really believe these incompetent so called, “Government officials such as Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and the current PM of Thailand”. They both contract themselves on every point and don’t think.

Leave it to the people to interpret what they see and need to do.

Reminds me of the movie, Planet of the Apes,” where the apes think they are smarter than everyone else.

Actual the Bangkok Governor is the only one who came with useful informations.

Politicians should never be allowed to control scientific elements of the bureaucracy. The first big mistake was the minister closing off the dams to save water for rice season, hang him from the highest tree and then send off a million spirit lights in celebration of his departure. This is not a situation that politicians can help. Let the bureaucrats do their job. The military may have expertise but Thai military has so much political content that they cannot be trusted to react with non-partisanship either. Time to let some outside help in to mediate the politics.

[h90]

How the Hell can we who live here in Thailand, really believe these incompetent so called, “Government officials such as Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and the current PM of Thailand”. They both contract themselves on every point and don’t think.

Leave it to the people to interpret what they see and need to do.

Reminds me of the movie, Planet of the Apes,” where the apes think they are smarter than everyone else.

Actual the Bangkok Governor is the only one who came with useful informations.

Politicians should never be allowed to control scientific elements of the bureaucracy. The first big mistake was the minister closing off the dams to save water for rice season, hang him from the highest tree and then send off a million spirit lights in celebration of his departure. This is not a situation that politicians can help. Let the bureaucrats do their job. The military may have expertise but Thai military has so much political content that they cannot be trusted to react with non-partisanship either. Time to let some outside help in to mediate the politics.

while I give you mostly right: Most top bureaucrats are complete incompetent because they get in the position by relations with the leading party. Good people will be put on "inactive positions" if they were put in the position by the opposition.

Actually always when the government completely f something up, it is the military which fixes things. If they wouldn't be as active in politics as they are, all of the leadership would have the surname "Shinawattra" already and the military would be as useless as the police.

Now is already the point I would see a military dictator as the better option.

[rubl]

flood.htm

Made this file with the help of another TV-er.

can see Chaopraya and canals clearly. Lardprao canal rises and falls with chaopraya

Just some minor improvements to the html, no real change just being my details focused self.

From your local Dutch uncle

flood2.html

[skippybangkok]

flood.htm

THICBR

added 479 and 480 as requested. Actually you can open the file with notepad editor...... and you can see your self very easy, just copy and past a new line, remove the http........ between " ", and replace.

v simple.

will look at the police web site for live cams...........

p.s. Seems Traffy is not updating most of their canals now........

Edited October 29, 2011 by skippybangkok

[BuckarooBanzai]

Actual the Bangkok Governor is the only one who came with useful informations.

Politicians should never be allowed to control scientific elements of the bureaucracy. The first big mistake was the minister closing off the dams to save water for rice season, hang him from the highest tree and then send off a million spirit lights in celebration of his departure. This is not a situation that politicians can help. Let the bureaucrats do their job. The military may have expertise but Thai military has so much political content that they cannot be trusted to react with non-partisanship either. Time to let some outside help in to mediate the politics.

while I give you mostly right: Most top bureaucrats are complete incompetent because they get in the position by relations with the leading party. Good people will be put on "inactive positions" if they were put in the position by the opposition.

Actually always when the government completely f something up, it is the military which fixes things. If they wouldn't be as active in politics as they are, all of the leadership would have the surname "Shinawattra" already and the military would be as useless as the police.

Now is already the point I would see a military dictator as the better option.

Appointees and bureaucrats are different.

[Pib]

They are both inbound and outbound on route 4 / phetkasem rd at Om yai near Big C. As far as i know this is the only route out of BKK toward the west... Thanks

This morning between 8am and about noon I did a round-trip on Route 4/Phetkasen from BangKhai (Bangkok) to Nakhon Pathom. A dry road the whole way. Traffic was lite on the trip to Nakhorn Pathom/going west at around 8 to 9am and not too heavy on the way back to Bangkok/BangKhai at 11am to noon. Only took 45-60 minutes each way...not bad at all considering the distances and getting through all the stop lights.

But the traffic going west to Nakhon Pathom at noon was very heavy....a long traffic jam just due to heavy traffic and all the stop lights; not due to any flooding. Glad I started this roadtrip early in the morning as an afternoon trip would have taken much, much longer....and during the whole afternoon trip I would have thought flooded roads was causing the delay when in fact it was just heavy traffic and stop lights.

Just a belated update. Last Tuesday/1 Nov I had to evacuate my western Bangkok (Khet Talingchan) moobaan due to high water....evacuated to a dry portion of Nakhon Pathom. When we left Tuesday we had around 80cm of water in the moobaan (referenced to road level in the moobaan). When we made a trip back yesterday/5 Nov to see how high the water had risen/condition of the house, the water was approx 1.5 meter deep but it may have stopped rising. I make my 1.5m estimate on the fact I'm 6 ft tall and the water was up to my mid-to-upper chest level yesterday. Yeap, sure was nice walking/wading through that nasty water to check out the house.

So, from personal experience, the bureaucrats estimate of up to 1 meter of water in western Bangkok in a worst case scenario was a little off, especially since the worst case scenario with numerous dyke failures didn't/hasn't occurred yet. While the govt has had some successes in protecting some areas, generally and IMHO, the govt has failed badly in this flood crisis.