Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday warned nervous Bangkok residents that incoming floods could last for four weeks, as waters inched nearer the city center on the eve of an emergency five-day holiday.
Yingluck told reporters that the capital’s flood barriers might not be able to hold back a mass of run-off water from the north as the country grapples with its worst flooding in decades.
“But I’m 50 percent confident that the inner zone of Bangkok will not be completely flooded,” she said, toning down comments from a day before when she said flooding in central Bangkok was “highly likely.”
The crisis has been plagued by contradictory information from national and local authorities, confusing the city’s 12 million residents who have been bracing for the onslaught of water for days now.
Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said late yesterday that a large amount of water was moving closer to the city.
“It will get to Bangkok tonight,” he said.
Adding to the deluged kingdom’s woes are fears of crocodiles on the loose from flooded farms — another three were captured yesterday in Nonthaburi Province, north of the capital.
“They are between 1.7 and 1.8 meters long,” an official from the fisheries department said, adding that they knew of no attacks on humans by the escaped reptiles, whose numbers remain unclear.
A high tide this weekend is expected to surge up Bangkok’s already swollen Chao Phraya River, and Yingluck said a “worst-case scenario” would see parts of the low-lying city submerged by “more than 1 meter” of water.
“Initially, the floods in Bangkok will last for two weeks to one month,” she added.
More than 600 inmates, including some on death row, were moved yesterday from the notorious Bang Kwang prison on the Chao Phraya riverbank.
Workers at Dusit Zoo, also near the waterway, began to evacuate some of its residents, including spotted deer and antelopes, while structures were provided for lions to climb up to safety.
Many supermarkets were running low on essential items such as bottled water and eggs as residents stocked up on goods ahead of the expected deluge.
“The most critical shortage is drinking water,” Yingluck said, advising people to boil tap water before consuming it.
On Tuesday, the government ordered a five-day holiday from today through Monday for 21 provinces, including Bangkok, to allow residents to prepare for the inundation or leave.
Government offices will be closed and authorities have urged public and private companies to allow their staff the time off, but the central bank said financial markets and banks would not shut.
Public schools in Bangkok, currently on holiday, are not expected to reopen until Nov. 15.
Bangkok’s main international airport, Suvarnabhumi, is operating as normal, but the domestic Don Mueang airport in the north of the capital suspended flights until Nov. 1 after waters started seeping onto the runways on Tuesday.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS