Bangkok Flood Latest News: 381 Dead; City Avoids Worst of Floods
Bangkok’s flood defense system has held up during peak tides and most of the city will avoid the worst of the floods, which have plagued its suburbs over the last few months, according to Thailand's prime minister.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra also said she hopes to speed up the draining process now that the peak tides have passed through the region.
“If everything goes as planned, there will be more relief," she told reporters Monday.
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High tides from the Chao Phraya River from the Gulf of Thailand have exacerbated attempts to drain the water, which has engulfed the city and it's outskirts for over two months.
"If there is no more additional water, the current runoff might not cause heavy flooding in Bangkok," the prime minister said. She also stated that there was still a large amount of water that needed to pass through Bangkok's rivers, canals, and tunnels before reaching sea.
Bangkok's Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra also said, in a media briefing, that the surrounding areas are still swamped with water.
“The flooding in those areas is still critical as there is a very large volume of water,” Paribatra said. “I can’t say that the flooding crisis in Bangkok has passed because a lot of people in many districts are still suffering from rising water levels.”
The prime minister urged people not to damage the city's relief efforts.
“We have to protect the barriers,” Shinawatra said. “Some water may still overflow the barriers, but it won’t cause the whole city to be swamped."
Three months of monsoons combined with unusually high tides have resulted in the worst flooding in Thailand in 60 years.
The water has been coming in from the Gulf of Thailand and has submerged a third of the country. The floods have killed 381 people and have left nearly 110,000 stranded. The water has also demolished thousands of crops and forced thousands of factories to shut down.
