Are You Affected By The Annual Floods? Do You Expect Improvement This Year?

[theblether]

I was reading about the progress of flood defence work and I was wondering.....

Are you affected by the annual floods?

Has there been any flood prevention work in your area? Where is your area?

In a normal year how deep is your flooding?

When does it start? How long does it last for?

What have you done to prepare?

It will be interesting to pare and compare what you expect to happen in a normal year and what you actually get this year.

It's early days in the flood prevention construction process, but hopefully what has been done so far will make a difference.

It's not meant to be a political thread, that is against general forum rules. It's intended to be a practical thread and maybe some newbies can pick up some tips before they get a shock.

Edited June 14, 2012 by theblether

[BigJohnnyBKK]

I'm in the peninsula surrounded by the Chao Phrya river south of Sathorn, not far from the CBD, and last year's kerfuffle didn't have any impact at all here other than the shops running out of essentials for a few days, and trivial shortages of non-essentials some of which still aren't sorted, but no water problems.

My landlord mentioned the value of the house has gone up so she's likely to try to raise the rent when my current three-year lease is up, so I'll skip trying to renew it this time as I usually do every year, maybe she'll be more likely to see reason next year - but then she hasn't raised it at all for seven years now, and has been very patient when I've gotten behind, sometimes six months or more, can't complain.

[theblether]

Good point Johnny as to how not being in the flood zone can still impact you.

I know some members will be sick to death of the annual flood stories however there does seem to be some effort put into flood prevention this year, plus the newbies will get tips.

On top of that It could be a reminder for the old timers to finish off those defences they were planning.

[tinfoilhat]

it will be pretty difficult to improve on last year, i spent October through January at the beach, avoiding flood waters that never even came close to my bangkok abode.

[seasia]

Hi

No serious affect(Pattaya) other than for a while stores running out of some products, compounded by BKK Thais coming down to do their shopping here, noticed Big C car park full with BKK cars on several weekends.

[theblether]

I remember it being said that BKK kind of evacuated to Pattaya.

Were any members actually inundated during the floods last year?

[David48]

^^ The Thai Stock Broking Firm's BKK Offices who I deal with, were temporarily relocated to Pattaya.

The floods last year had a detrimental effect at the gf's Fish Farm ... but for the opposite reason.

The Farm is located south of the Airport and is mainly land locked with the primary means of transport being the 'Longboat'.

Their local Klong draws water from one of the major Klongs which runs south past Suvarnabhumi ... which was protected at all costs.

This restricted water flow south into the Gulf of Thailand and resulted in the dropping of the small service Klong behind the Farm to a level which made it unnavigable for some weeks ...

The Farms Father did however expect the area to flood (as it has in the past) and started organising the sand bags.

He then sold the entire contents of his pond ... and apparently made a nice profit as the Fish prices had spiked then ...

[jaiyenyen]

We felt the full effects of the flooding last year. Our home had around 1.5m of water in it for 2 months. We moved as much stuff as we could upstairs, but we still lost a lot of things. Some furniture was too heavy to move, so we lost that. Also, many things that were moved to safety were ruined because of the damp atmosphere.

As for personal flood prevention, last year we did nothing. Many people in our village spent time and money building flood defences out of sandbags, or blocks, around their homes. We did nothing. In the end, we were all affected,no one escaped the water.

This year? Who knows what will happen.

[robblok]

I was affected, first time in 6 years. I still hate the government for keeping it quiet. If they had told us before we could have done more. We were ones of the first hit close to BKK.

This year i don't expect flooding but if it happens ill buy stones to put my furtniture highter. We had only 25 cm in the house and 80cm in the streets. If it happens again ill sell the house.

I doubt that the government can be this incompetent again. I do know that the people in the village will break any dams protecting BKK and keeping water here this time. They will do that because the promises of good compensation were not kept and will refuse to suffer more to keep BKK dry. This the general sentiment around this area (and i agree with it).

Lot's of things were promised but almost nothing happened dams and extra protection wise. So maybe if BKK floods badly too they will wake up.

[jaiyenyen]

^ Completely agree,

There is no way the locals will sit back and allow the water to back up next time.

[robblok]

^ Completely agree,

There is no way the locals will sit back and allow the water to back up next time.

@ jaiyenyen

Did you get the 5000 compensation ? We did but were promised 20k more. So yesterday we got an other 7200. Locals were real angry about it because 20k was promised. I never expected any money after the first 5k.

Anyway i rather have no money and dry feet. But they feel betrayed here and certainly wont listen next time not to open gates wider and break dams. Once the dams were taken down and gates opened wider water went down fast here.

Things is they promised so much.. dredging higher banks ect.. but so far not much has been done in this area.

[Pormax]

Not sure if this is a sign of things to come later this year for those affected by floods last year.

I live in/near Prachonchai, Buriram. We have had much more rain here than we did last year with many rice

farmers getting caught out by not planting the rice early. Now many parts are at least 6mm deep with water

so now the farmers have to wait until/if the waterlevels drop. The problem up here with the nature of the soil is that

the water does not drain away easily in the rice fields.

I understand that much of the problems of last year came from the water flowing down from the North East.

This area is unlikely to have a major flood problem but the warning issued by a goverment spokesman recently of the

likleyhood of further floods this year could very well turnout to be true.

If I was in an area effected last year I would certainly be taking pro-active measures this year.

[robblok]

You cant take many pro active measures. Thing is i will get some good wading pants and such and if it gets so far i buy loads of stones to get the furniture up higher. I might get a small boat too. But to expect to keep the water out.. almost impossible. You need many pumps and even then it will be real hard as it will come up through the floor or any other place.

I still don't think it will happen again most of the problems were caused by releasing the water from the dams when it was already raining hard and no way to drain it. This time they are keeping the dams at a much lower level.

[theblether]

@robblok, I see a story in the news section that dam release is starting to cause problems in the Yom river.

Last year did seem to be a generational flood though, it's unlikely to hit as hard. I don't think the rainfall is anything like the same in the North East this year. Does anyone have comparative rainfall figures from last year to this year so far?

[jaiyenyen]

@ robblok

Yeah, we got the 5000bht within a few weeks of the floods subsiding. Then there was the promise of the 20,000 baht. We were told that if your home had been affected by the flooding for more than 2 months, you would get 20,000 baht. Many people from our village, including us, went to the Amphur at Don Meuang to register. As yet, we've recieved bugger all. last thing I heard was that they are now asking for reciepts of everything you lost in the flood. No reciept = no payment.

Like you, I don't expect to get any more, but if it happens it'll be nice.

As usual, the Thai gvernment are busy moving goalposts.

[robblok]

@ robblok

Yeah, we got the 5000bht within a few weeks of the floods subsiding. Then there was the promise of the 20,000 baht. We were told that if your home had been affected by the flooding for more than 2 months, you would get 20,000 baht. Many people from our village, including us, went to the Amphur at Don Meuang to register. As yet, we've recieved bugger all. last thing I heard was that they are now asking for reciepts of everything you lost in the flood. No reciept = no payment.

Like you, I don't expect to get any more, but if it happens it'll be nice.

As usual, the Thai gvernment are busy moving goalposts.

Gf got creative with the receipts. But in the end they did not look at those just gave people a set amount (maybe on basis of receipts). It was not just our village but many others too. After we got some money we and the others also went to claim more and told them we did not agree about the payment.

Anyway i'm pretty sure that if it happens again they cant stop people from breaking dams. If they had kept their word maybe it would not happen. But most people feel even 25.000 is nothing for the extra time that we suffered so others could stay dry.