Hundreds dead and homeless as floods assail Thailand
Barriers protecting Bangkok from Thailand’s worst floods in half a century held firm yesterday as the government said some water overwhelming provinces just north of the capital has begun receding.
That fuelled hopes that Bangkok, a city of nine million, could escape unharmed. However, outside the capital, thousands of people remain displaced and hungry residents are struggling to survive in half-submerged towns. Yesterday, the military rescued civilians from the roof-tops of flooded buildings in the swamped city of Ayutthaya.
Bangkok has averted calamity so far thanks to a complex system of flood walls, canals, dykes and underground tunnels that are helping divert vast pools of run-off south into the Gulf of Thailand.