Salaya Cleaning

We have been to Salaya this morning to move the little girl’s possessions from her previous dorm room to her new one – just one hundred metres away or thereabouts but in a largely unaffected area. Although her room had been on the first floor, the whole of the house is pretty much ruined.

The water level is very evident – waist high for me and rather higher for the womenfolk. The amount of mud and other matter in the water can be imagined from the dirtiness of the marks everywhere. The remnants of the mud and various bits of detritus are still hanging around everywhere.

The photos do not, of course, convey the smell or the amount of dust in the air, both of which are significant and detrimental to health, presumably. Pretty much everything inside the house which was touched by the water was ruined and is being thrown out. On the way out there, we saw many piles of rubbish which were household goods (or garden goods) which had been affected and discarded by people. Then again, it is an ill wind and so forth, and there are a number of water pickers (a better word than scavengers, I have decided) who are looking through the piles of rubbish for items that can be cleaned, rescued and either used or perhaps sold.

Along the front road facing Mahidol University in particular, the business owners are starting to open up – some are still clearing out the mud, some are pouring new layers of concrete over frontages (the water has opened up many potholes) and life is at least offering to return to normal. Good luck to them all, there is not much in the way of insurance for this.

The road back from Salaya to central Bangkok is passable now, although there are a few patches of water. The deepest is at the corner from the university road on to the expressway, where the water comes up perhaps half a metre on the left hand side of the road and we went into a concealed pothole – but non-small cars and motor bikes can make it through without serious problems if using care.

Flood Threat Recedes from Ladprao 64

We have made it to Sunday lunchtime and the water is generally receding. The klnogs and reservoirs are all quite full so it is possible that a burst bank might lead to localized flooding – which might also result from sabotage of the existing sandbags and barriers.

Other than that, though, it looks like we really are going to get away with it here in Ladprao 64. We are one of a number of little pockets who have kept dry – as I mentioned before, it is not really possible to be able to predict in advance how floods unprecedented in modern Bangkok will affect areas of variable elevation. If the same thing happens next year, presumably authorities will have learned from this year and so do things a little differently and, hence, the pattern of flooding will change in ways equally unpredictable. Perhaps we would get our feet wet while people who suffered this year get away with it.

An alternative would be for the authorities to take a properly long-term and large-scale view of the situation and mobilize the resources – well, there is not much chance of that because of obstruction from certain institutions who would think their role as Green Father Christmas will be threatened, not to mention other vested interests.

Never mind – lucky that global climate change is all a con so we don’t have to worry about this kind of thing becoming ever more likely in the future. Eh? Oh.

The Worst Has, Once More, Passed Us By

The situation in our part of Ladprao remains the same today – there is no change in the nearby sois and the rain shower that occurred an hour or so ago did not stimulate any overflows. The msot recent high tide has passed (last night was Loy Krathong with its attendant full moon) and reports are that flood levels in most places are starting to decline. There is still a long way to go, of course, and many people have suffered because of the natural disaster.  Let us hope things now go as predicted and the waters recede so that we are back more or less to a normal way of life within a couple of weeks.

We have not heard of people breaking down dikes or barriers recently – have they stopped doing it, are they still doing it but no one is reporting it or was the damage actually caused by the fingers of the invisible hand?

The cost of the floods has been enormous, with more than 500 people now said to have been killed as a result.  Attention increasingly shifts to the need to rebuild the manufacturing sector and restoring tourism, investor confidence and so forth. It would be nice to think that, at this time of tragic emergency, all sectors of society will join together …..

Alas, no.

Disappointingly but as widely expected, bloodstained hypocrite Abhisit Vejjajiva is leading the attempt to try to undermine the democratically elected government in concert with an aacademic from Chulalongkorn University who is planning to sue on some strange basis – Chulalongkorn University also gave us the doctors who broke the Hippocratic Oath by refusing to treat police officers who had been wounded by the neo-fascist PAD thugs. Expect lengthy stories in the press about obscure claims of misconduct as the forces of reaction try to engineer another judicial coup. They have learned nothing.

Wednesday: Relentlessly Dry on Ladprao 64

Some water has made it to Rama II Road – gateway to the South – so it will soon be time for the people down there to have their own experience of the flood.

Governor of Bangkok MR Sukhumband, whose antics have not covered him glory, is apparently offering jobs at 300 baht per day for people willing to clean up the rubbish from flood-affected areas in Bangkok.

Apart from that, things remain the same. Our university has pushed back the start of the next term to the 28th, perhaps by that time it will be possible to make it out to Pathum Thani. We will, as ever see.

Flood: Little Change Tuesday

From our point of view, there has not been much change again today. Those areas affected are still affected, although the area has widened slightly. There does not seem to have been any further movement of the water along Ladprao Road, although as I mentioned before it was claimed that the movement is now taking place underground.

The number of deaths attributed to the floods has suddenly jumped again, to 527, without any explanation of who these new victims are or how they have died. Given the way that figures are reported for (for example) deaths from road traffic accidents over New Year, it is not unusual for people to be a little sceptical about whether some (perhaps small number of) deaths are attirbuted to this large event when they might realistically be attributed to other causes. It is unlikely whether this will ever come to light.

Provinces a little further to the north, including Pathum Thani, are said to have slightly lower levels of flood water now and it is reported that life might return to normal there within ten days, although that sounds a bit like a guess. As ever, we shall see how it all turns out.

Monday Lunchtime

There is nothing much to report overnight – it may well be that the water movements are now taking place underground and so are more difficult to track. Water has come as far as the Thai Rath building on Viphawadi-Rangsit road and, I am told, has gone a little further. Din Daeng is also affected and the u-turn close to Mahidol College of Management is affected (not sure to what extent – it may still be passable but caveat tractor).

It has also begun spreading to Saphan Khwai - most of Chatuchak is under water an out of action but the Sunday market apparently went ahead as normal. As for Ladprao, there is nothing new to report. We are still clear at 64 and I have not heard anything about new water in the higher numbers.

We’ll see what happens next.

Sunday Evening as Waters Gather

The number of deaths attributed to the flood has suddenly leaped to 506 - no explanation is provided for this sudden jump. There is little else to report – the water continues on its way and the media are trying to build up some kind of argument between the BMA and the elected government (with the former representing virtuous, authoritarian elites and the latter representing spendthrift, populist politicians with the probably infernal ability to encourage people to vote for them repeatedly in their many millions). It’s a lazy and obviously overblown story.

Pawana junction, according to a sign posted (presumably by the police at our junction) has water at 30 cm and the road is blocked off at Chok Chai 4. There was a report that it will no longer travel by road but will move underground and emerge from the drains. However, there are many reports of different things.

Presumably it will be a case of staying at home tomorrow but we will see how it goes.

 

Water at Sutthisan and Chokchai 4: World Cut Off!

Good afternoon,

Well, it is Saturday now and the world is being cut off from Ladprao, the beating heart of Bangkok. The flood has reached Chokchai 4 (and, I heard, Pawana Junction) and the Ladprao Road is closed in that direction to the mouth at the Viphawadi-Rangsit junction next to Central Ladprao (which is closed).

There is also water at the Sutthisan junction and it is scheduled to reach our office in the Voice TV Building before the day is out. I suspect it will be a while before I have a chance to return to the office, therefore.

We will be depositing the in-laws in the hospital again tomorrow and then waiting it out. The little girl’s unversity is now due to re-open for classes on the 28th and I expect that other schools and colleges, ours included, will also follow the same plan. We shall see.

No crocodiles or snakes have been spotted in our vicinity but it is never too soon to panic, obviously.

Central Ladprao Is Closed – Water on Surrounding Roads

Central Ladprao is now closed and there is water on the surrounding roads. Police are there blocking traffic coming from Mo Chit – you can still turn right (as I did to our office) or else left – not sure how far Viphawadi-Rangsit is passable in that direction.

There is not a huge amount of water – a few cm on most of the roads but it seems to be deepening from the various pools that have formed. Photos on the Bangkok Post website show that the roads on the other side of the junction are up to perhaps 10 cm deep.

It will not be long, presumably, before the water starts to enter the mouth of Lad Prao road itself, if it has not already done so.

Water Starting to Arrive in Ladprao District

As ever in Thailand, any genuine information is almost drowned by a mass of half-truths, rumours and gratuitous obfuscation. However, the traffic is, apparently, backing up around the Ladprao-Ratchada junction, suggesting that the water is causing problems on the road past the court and the SCB plaza.

An aggregate of reports over the past few weeks suggests that the water progresses at an average of 2 km per day – which would mean it would reach Ladprao 64 about teatime tomorrow. However, there are other rumours about water already reaching the ‘other side of the road’ – that is, odd numbered sois and that the klong has overflowed on that side. Well, going over our stretch of the klong this morning showed that that it was at a more elevated level than when I walked past last night and was moving quite quickly. It was not overflowing but it was not that far from it – if there were a large increase in water, then it would come over the top but we are led to believe that the water level is either remaining constant or decreasing slightly.

On the other hand, there are other reports of ‘sabotage’ of dikes and illegal blockages of canals and so forth so we might receive some unwanted surprises (who would benefit from undermining the credibility of the democratically elected government?).

Let’s see what happens over the rest of the day – Mme is probably going to want to leave early and pull up the drawbridge.