Bangkok of Thailand flooding river to record high
Published October 28, 2011 | 
The primary river feeding through Thailand’s capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate purple complex at high tide amid fears that flood defences could unwrap and swamp the eye of the city.
Ankle-high water from the Chao Phraya river spilled through one sandbagged entranceway of Bangkok’s treasured K Palace, which erst housed the kingdom’s monarchy. The army was pumping away the water, and tourists were even entering the white-walled compound.
The river has filled roads outside the palace gates for days, merely the water has receded with the tides, leaving streets dry again.
But the higher than normal tides in the Gulf of Thailand, expected to peak Saturday, are obstructing the flood runoff from the north, and there are fears that the overflows could swamp parts of downtown. The goverment besides is worried major barriers and dikes could break.
Seven of Bangkok’s 50 districts — totally in the northern outskirts — are heavily flooded, and residents get fled aboard bamboo rafts and army trucks and by wading in waist-deep water.
The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than half a century, experience drenched a tertiary of the country’s provinces, killed closing to 400 people and displaced more than 110,000 others. The water has crept from the cardinal champaigns south toward the Gulf of Thailand, just Bangkok is in the way. It is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through the metropolis via a complex network of canals and rivers.
Most of Bangkok, however, has remained dry and virtually of its more than 9 million residents were staying posed to protect their homes.
Still, fears the inner metropolis could flood has fueled an exodus, as Thais and expatriates alike attempted refuge outside Bangkok and strange governments urged their citizens to avoid unessential travel to the threatened city.
The U.S. Nation Department cautioned against whole just essential locomote to areas of Thailand struck by the flooding, including Bangkok, because of transferral difficulties and shortages of sure food items.
On Thursday, an emotional Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her authorities could not moderate the deluge.
Thailand Nation calls holiday to Countenance Escapism from thai floods
Published October 26, 2011 | The cabinet announced Oct 27-31 a holiday in Bangkok and 20 provinces affected by the country’s worst flooding in 50 years equally weekend high tides in the Gulf of Thailand could complicate efforts to divert water from the low-lying capital.
Financial markets will stay open.
As water levels climbed, some of those already evacuated were preparing to exist evacuated again, with 4,000 people sheltering at a northern Bangkok airport stated they would be affected to the eastern province of Chon Buri.
The floods get defeated at least 366 people since mid-July and disrupted the lives of nearly 2.5 million, with more than 113,000 in shelters and 720,000 seeking medical attention.
Authorities are sputtering to pump away water around the east and occident of Bangkok simply record-high water levels in the Chao Phraya river that winds through the metropolis raise the risk of floods in the commercial heart when the high tides come.
Prime Minister warned in a televised address that key Bangkok, which government have been sputtering to protect, could be swamped by up to 1.5 meters (nearly five feet) of water if barriers broke.
Flood in Thailand declines Offer of help-US Navy
Published October 25, 2011 | The US Navy has withdrawn several ships sent to assistant with relief efforts in flood-hit Thailand after receiving “mixed” messages from the Bangkok government, a defense official enounced Monday.
The USS George Washington aircraft carrier and other ships were deployed to the expanse on October 16 for possible disaster relief mould equally Thailand faced massive flooding from monsoon rains, pronounced Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander John Perkins.
But the US military never received a formal request from the Thai authorities and the three-ship aircraft carrier grouping along with a quaternary ship, the USS Kidd, were released and left the area on Friday, articulated Perkins, spokesman for the US Pacific Fleet based in Hawaii.
“We are ready to assistant8 simply we haven’t got a request,” enunciated a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There were two channels (in the Thai government),” the defense official said AFP. “One was locution ‘Yes’ and one was saying ‘No.’”
The Thai capital on Monday was bracing for advancing and seemingly unstoppable floodwaters after6 residents in areas deemed near at threat were urged to leave.
Other regions of the nation receive been plagued by three months of heavy monsoon rains that receive defeated more than 350 people in Thailand and damaged the homes and livelihoods of nine million