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Photos: Thailand's ordeal by water

Posted by Admin on November 9, 2011

http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/thailand-floods-in-pictures-1320733871-slideshow/

 Bangkok, one of the favourite tourist destinations of the East, is also a city that climatologists have warned for years to be sinking. Two spells of flooding this year — including one in March, supposedly the country’s dry season — have claimed hundreds of lives and destroyed livelihoods. The death toll in this year’s post-monsoon flooding, which began in late July, has exceeded 500. An area the size of Kuwait has been underwater. Food, clean water and medication are the needs of the hour, but relief workers are struggling to reach supplies to far-flung villages where disease and electrocution threaten survivors. Rising floodwaters have shut down industrial estates, threatening to hit the carmaking industry (leading Japanese automakers have plants in Thailand). Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, enduring her first grueling test since she assumed power in August, is facing the ire of the people who are threatening to break flood barricades that are keeping inner Bangkok dry while marooning surrounding suburbs.

  1. Mon, Nov 7, 2011

    Residents row a boat in front of a bus along a flooded street in Bangkok November 7, 2011. Flood waters encircled two industrial estates in the east of Bangkok on Monday and disrupted bus services in the Thai capital, although mass transit train systems were still running and central commercial districts remained dry. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
  2. Tue, Nov 8, 2011

    A Buddhist monk walks down a flooded street while collecting alms in Bangkok November 8, 2011. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
  3. Mon, Nov 7, 2011

    Commuters stand amid flood waters while awaiting public transport near Bangkok’s Chatuchak market November 7, 2011. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
  4. Mon, Oct 31, 2011

    Houses in a residential area are submerged in floodwaters in the northern section of Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
  5. Sun, Nov 6, 2011

    Residents sit on a ‘tuk-tuk’ tricycle taxi as they travel along a flooded street in Bangkok November 6, 2011. The floods in Thailand began in July and have devastated large parts of the central Chao Phraya river basin, killed nearly 400 people and have disrupted the lives of more than two million. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
  6. Thu, Nov 3, 2011

    Dogs are seen on a motorcycle next to a flooded street at Don Muang district in Bangkok November 3, 2011. Authorities in the Thai capital repaired a damaged flood gate on Wednesday that has become the focus of anger, fear and rivalry between arms of government battling the country’s worst floods in decades. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
  7. Thu, Nov 3, 2011

    BANGKOK,THAILAND – NOVEMBER 3: Men pull eggs in a small boat through the floodwater at the closed Don Muang airport November 3, 2011 in Bangkok,Thailand. The airport was used as a domestic terminal and was formerly the International airport. Thailand is experiencing the worst flooding in over 50 years and has affected more than nine million people. Over 400 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
  8. Fri, Oct 28, 2011

    A 42-year-old motorcycle taxi driver Chatchawal Phuengwut poses with a python he caught in floodwaters just outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok October 28, 2011. Traffic clogged roads out of Bangkok on Friday as thousands of people fled ahead of a high tide that may worsen floods that have inundated factories and prompted foreign governments to warn citizens to stay away from one of Asia’s biggest cities. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
  9. Thu, Nov 3, 2011

    A view of a flooded street is reflected on a man’s sunglasses at Don Muang district in Bangkok November 3, 2011. Authorities in the Thai capital repaired a damaged flood gate on Wednesday that has become the focus of anger, fear and rivalry between arms of government battling the country’s worst floods in decades. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
  10. Thu, Nov 3, 2011

    BANGKOK,THAILAND – NOVEMBER 3: Planes sit on the flooded tarmack of the closed Don Muang airport November 3, 2011 in Bangkok,Thailand. The airport was used as a domestic terminal and was formerly the International airport. Thailand is experiencing the worst flooding in over 50 years and has affected more than nine million people. Over 400 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
  11. Wed, Oct 26, 2011

    BANGKOK, THAILAND – OCTOBER 26: An elderly woman gets put on a truck going toward a hospital down the newly flooded streets near the Chao Phraya river October 26, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Hundreds of factories closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi as the flood waters began to reach Bangkok. Around 350 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, with Thailand experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
  12. Sun, Oct 30, 2011

    BANGKOK,THAILAND – OCTOBER 30: A Thai flood victim prays while a monk chants at a crowded evacuation center October 30, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Thousands of flood victims have been forced to take shelter at crowded evacuation centers around the capitol city. Hundreds of factories have been closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi. Thailand is experiencing the worst flooding in over 50 years which has affected more than nine million people. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
  13. Thu, Oct 20, 2011

    A man paddles a makeshift raft through a flooded area in the suburbs of Bangkok October 20, 2011. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra defended her government’s response to the country’s worst floods in half a century on Wednesday as troops battled to protect industrial centres and Bangkok braced for rising waters. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
  14. Wed, Nov 2, 2011

    People make their way through a flooded area in Bangkok November 2, 2011. Thai authorities tried to stem growing anger among flood victims on Tuesday as water swamped new neighbourhoods and the government began mapping out a plan costing billions of dollars to prevent a repeat disaster and secure investor confidence. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
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Floods threaten Bangkok as north starts to rebuild

Posted by Admin on November 7, 2011

http://in.news.yahoo.com/floods-threaten-bangkok-north-starts-rebuild-104703813.html

By PAILIN WEDEL – Associated Press | AP – 2 hours 12 minutes ago

BANGKOK (AP) — Floodwaters from Thailand‘s flood-ravaged central heartland pushed farther into Bangkok on Monday, as residents of long-submerged provinces north of the capital started to rebuild their lives.

The water slowly advancing through Bangkok’s northern and western neighborhoods is threatening the city’s subway system, two key industrial estates and the emergency headquarters set up to deal with the flooding that has claimed more than 500 lives nationwide.

Evacuations have been ordered in 12 of Bangkok’s 50 districts, with residents of the northern district of Klong Sam Wa told to leave Monday. The evacuations, which also effect parts of several other districts, are not mandatory, and many people are staying to protect homes and businesses. But the orders illustrate how far flooding has progressed into the city and how powerless the government has been to stop it.

The flooding began in late July and some provinces to the north of Bangkok have been inundated for more than a month. The waters have started to recede in recent days, revealing the massive cleanup effort that lies ahead.

For two months, Anan Dirath was forced to live on the second floor of his home in Nakorn Sawan province. But now that the water has receded to knee level, it’s time to clean up.

He armed his two teenage children with mops, scrub brushes and garbage bags. Wading in the water, his family began scrubbing dirt off the walls and collecting the garbage around the house. He said the dirt was difficult to wash off and he has had to scrub the paint off to get rid of it.

“Oh my pretty home. It used to be a pretty two-story home,” he said Monday.

In nearby Nakorn Sawan town center, where the water has dried completely, the government sponsored a cleanup day last week when roads were scrubbed down to get rid of the oily mud left from the floods. Back hoes were used to carry garbage away.

The cleanup also has begun in some parts of Thailand’s ancient capital of Ayutthaya. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is to visit the province Tuesday to witness recovery efforts.

Yingluck says a plan to be put before the Cabinet on Tuesday would allocate 100 billion baht ($3.3 billion) for post-flood reconstruction.

Her government has come under fire for failing to predict the threat to Bangkok. Residents also have been frustrated by widely differing assessments of the flooding situation from the prime minister, Bangkok’s governor and the country’s top water experts and officials.

Floodwaters in the city continued to flow south Monday toward the still-unaffected central business district. In Chatuchak, a few miles (kilometers) north of there, water was nearly knee deep around Mo Chit Skytrain station, the northernmost stop on the capital’s elevated train system.

Water was also rising near three subway stops in the same area. Both mass transit networks are functioning normally, though some exits have been barricaded and closed.

Chatuchak is home to the government’s national flood relief headquarters, which is housed in the Energy Ministry — a building now surrounded by water. The relief headquarters moved last week out of Bangkok’s Don Muang airport after it, too, was flooded. The city’s main airport remains open.

Also in Chatuchak, water has begun approaching a main road near the Mo Chit bus terminal, a major gateway to northern Thailand.

___

Associated Press writers Vee Intarakratug, Todd Pitman and Chris Blake contributed to this report.

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Quake kills at least 74 in Myanmar, one in Thailand

Posted by Admin on March 27, 2011

http://in.news.yahoo.com/quake-kills-least-74-myanmar-one-thailand-20110325-020032-929.html

By DPA | IANS – Fri, Mar 25, 2011 2:30 PM IST

Yangon, March 25 (DPA) A magnitude-6.8 earthquake killed at least 74 people in northeast Myanmar and one in Thailand, officials said Friday.

About 74 people died and 111 were injured in Tarli and Tachilek towns, near the Myanmar-Thai border in Myanmar’s Shan state, and destroyed 244 houses, nine government offices and 14 Buddhist monasteries, government-run Myanmar television reported.

The epicentre of the earthquake was about 50 km north of Tachilek, a border town 680 km north of Bangkok.

Myanmar Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Shwe was reportedly en route to the quake-hit area for an assessment tour.

The Myanmar Red Cross and Crescent Society has dispatched 1,000 relief packages to the area, but access to the region is difficult.

‘It takes around four days to reach the affected area by car from Yangon and there are flights twice a week into Tachilek’s airport,’ aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement.

There were no reports on casualties in Yangon and Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s former and current capitals, respectively.

The earthquake struck at 8.25 p.m. (1355 GMT) Thursday, with its epicentre in northeast Myanmar, 589 km northeast of Yangon, and 772 km north of Bangkok, according to the US Geological Survey.

In Chiang Rai, Thailand, Hong Khamping, 55, died when a concrete wall in her home collapsed on top of her. The wall was poorly constructed, Thai officials said.

‘There were no other deaths or injuries in northern Thailand,’ said Chiatha Mositrat, head of the Chiang Rai Disaster Prevention Office.

Tourists in Chiang Rai, including members of the Syrian triathlon team, evacuated their hotel rooms for several hours.

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