Floods lapping at heart of Thailand's capital

With Thai government officials saying there was nothing more they could do to protect the capital,


Bangkok, from flooding, tens oBANGKOK — With Thai government officials saying there was nothing more they could do to protect the capital, Bangkok, from flooding, tens of thousands of people were fleeing Thursday, jamming train and bus stations and clogging the southern highways out of town.

Water rose in outlying neighborhoods and rippled across the banks of the Chao Phraya River, but the streets of central Bangkok remained dry and unusually quiet. Government offices, schools and a number of major shopping malls had shut down or were closing early.

People stowed their cars in high garages or triple-parked on highway overpasses, and crowded onto the city's elevated train and subway. Hastily built walls of sandbags and cement guarded the entrances to shops, homes, hotels and hospitals.

Grocery shelves were stripped of essentials; some shops imposed a rationing system on shrinking stocks of items such as instant noodles, rice and eggs. In many places, food vendors and their carts had disappeared from the sidewalks.

The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than 50 years, have drenched one-third of the country's provinces, killed nearly 400 people and displaced more than 110,000 others. For weeks, the water has crept down from the central plains, flowing south toward the Gulf of Thailand. Bangkok is in the way, and it is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through it via a complex network of canals and rivers.

By Thursday, flooding had inundated seven of Bangkok's 50 districts, most on the northern outskirts. There, roads have turned into rivers and homes and businesses are swamped.

The flooding started three months ago with heavy rain and what seems to have been a badly timed release of water from dams, and has been moving south toward the capital, inundating cities such as Ayutthaya.

As floodwaters approached Bangkok, the government seemed overwhelmed by the threat. A series of contradictory official statements in the past two weeks has coalesced into predictions of high water that could disrupt city life for weeks. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has warned of a worst-case scenario in which water could rise in some areas to about 6 feet, and remain for a month or more. On Thursday, Yingluck said the flood had overwhelmed all efforts to contain it.

"It seems like we're fighting against the forces of nature," she said. "The truth is, we need to let it flow naturally out to the sea, and what we can do now is to manage it."

A young and inexperienced politician with an untried Cabinet of sometimes competing ministers, Yingluck has become the target of criticism in this severely polarized nation. Cartoons, doctored photographs and false derogatory rumors have spread on the Internet and social networks.

The coming weekend is of particular concern, when the enormous runoff from the north could combine with high tides to overflow the Chao Phraya River.

On Thursday, Bangkok residents who had not fled moved with their belongings to upper floors of their homes, or took refuge in Buddhist temples, some of which were already surrounded by water.

The river has overflowed, sending ankle-high water lapping at the white exterior walls of Bangkok's gilded Grand Palace, a treasured complex that once housed the kingdom's monarchy and is a major tourist attraction.

The water has receded with the tides, slightly flooding the area in the morning and evening, but leaving it dry in the afternoon.

After visiting the Grand Palace on Thursday, U.S. tourist Kathy Kiernan said she wasn't too concerned about flooding in the capital.

"We were a little worried when we got in to see sandbags around our hotel," said Kiernan, 47, of Salt Lake City, Utah. "But so far it's pretty normal."

Though flooding shut down Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport on Wednesday, it was operating as usual Thursday.

Several foreign governments issued advisories urging citizens against all but essential travel to Bangkok. The U.S. Embassy cautioned Americans that ground travel around Thailand was difficult and the situation should be monitored closely.fthousands of people were fleeing Thursday, jamming train and bus stations and clogging the southern highways out of town.