Bangkok Flood Latest: Water Nearing Inner City
Authorities ordered more Bangkok residents to evacuate Monday as the floods continued to make their way towards the inner city.
The floods killed upwards of 500 people and left hundreds of thousands stranded.
Authorities in Bangkok are working tirelessly to protect the inner city from the floods. The water has already reached the outer parts in the inner city.
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Somkid Tanwatanakul, deputy governor of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, said the floodwaters have almost reached the Lat Krabang Industrial Estate in the eastern part the city and the floods are approximately 1.5 meters high.
"We have strengthened dikes around the estate to 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) high. My worry is if this much water continues to hold for a long time with nowhere to go, the estate might not make it," said Tanwatanakul to Reuters.
The area contains 254 factories with almost 50,000 workers. Johnson & Johnson, Isuzu Motors and Honda Motor Co. have facilities there.
Over a third of the Thailand capital's districts are placed on full or partial evacuation orders, according to a BBC News report.
The waters are slowly draining away from deluged provinces north of Bangkok into the inner city en route to the ocean. Bangkok authorities have set up more pumps to try speed up the flow of the water.
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the pumps he provided would double capacity to move the water away from the eastern part of the city.
Meanwhile bus service is suspended throughout the city. Subways and SkyTrains are running normally.
Three months of monsoons combined with high tides have resulted in the worst flooding in Thailand in 60 years. The Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra said she is going to allocate over $2 billion for post-flood reconstruction.
