Here’s the latest as of 11:45 p.m. today, October 16, 2011:
Overview
Reports suggest the worst may have passed here in central Bangkok, with no major flooding. (See news reports below.)
As I mentioned earlier, though, other parts of greater Bangkok — such as the north, west, and east — have been hit.
Ayutthaya and central Thailand have also faced major flooding.
Industrial estates in this part of the country have also been affected. (See below.)
More maps
Google Crisis Response has released an English language map. Below is a screen grab.
The map is online here.
This is a good resource, as it allows viewing different sets of data at once or individually.
Here, for example, is the a map of the parts of Thailand that have been affected by floods:
Traffy.in.th is a map that shows video from traffic Web cams. This could be useful for assessing road conditions.
Here’s what the map of Bangkok looks like. The camera icons can be clicked to see the videos.
The map is online here.
ThaiRainMap.com shows the portions of Thailand where rain is (or was recently?) falling.
Note that it’s unclear to me how this meterorological information is sourced. Here’s a screen grab:
The map is at ThaiRainMap.com.
News Reports
The AP says:
The government expressed confidence Sunday that Bangkok will escape Thailand’s worst flooding in decades, as the capital’s elaborate barriers held strong and floodwaters began receding from submerged plains to the north.
Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut said the largest mass of runoff water flowing southward had passed through Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river and into the Gulf of Thailand, and that the river’s levels would rise no higher. He stopped short of saying the threat to Bangkok had passed completely.
The BBC has more:
Thailand’s government has expressed confidence that the capital Bangkok will escape the worst of the country’s current flooding.
Agriculture Minister Theera Wongsamut said there were “good signs” that water levels on the city’s key Chao Phraya river would rise no higher.
The Bangkok Post reports that industrial estates have been affected:
Massive floods swamped a fourth major industrial estate in Ayutthaya yesterday, forcing authorities to order the evacuation of workers.
Water breached floodwalls to inundate Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate despite the efforts of the army and factory workers to reinforce defences.
Bang Pa-in district chief Nathee Borsuwan said people were ordered to move immediately to safe ground.
The water level was recorded at 80cm to one metre.
Soldiers and workers had raced to repair a broken floodwall on the eastern side of the estate since early on Friday but failed due to the strong flow of water.
Since the Chao Phraya River overflowed and burst a dyke at Wat Chaiwattanaram on Oct 4, Ayutthaya and downstream areas have been inundated. The Saha Rattana Nakorn, Rojana and Hi-Tech industrial estates were flooded, causing billions of baht of damage.
PBS NewsHour has a transcript from an Oct. 14 show about the flooding. Here’s a passage that caught my eye.
I was wondering if someone might reference Bush and Katrina:
CATHARIN DALPINO: Well, this is really a test for the new prime minister, for Prime Minister Yingluck, the kind of test that the Bush administration had with Hurricane Katrina, that the Japanese government had with the tsunami and the earthquake.
And every government on this planet, with the possible exception of one or two, now operates under performance legitimacy. How well do they do in these kinds of natural disasters? Certainly, in the past five years, Thailand has been very divided politically. It’s interesting in the past couple of days to see the bipartisan spirit or the multi-partisan spirit.
Yesterday, former Prime Minister Abhisit made a call upon Prime Minister Yingluck. He of course was her rival and he was the one that she turned out in the election. And that was a very, very important symbol.
(All emphasis mine.)
For ongoing info, I suggest the Thai Travel News blog.
And a reminder: previous posts with maps, news reports, and more can be found by clicking the Thailand flooding tag.
That’s it for now. If you’ve sent me an email and I haven’t respond yet, please be patient.