The Albany Gazette - Thailand floods affect hundreds of thousands, eight dead in Myanmar

The casualties in Thailand have occurred in three eastern provinces since September 16, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, with none reported in the capital.

More than 500,000 households and 1.7 million people across 27 provinces have been impacted by floods in Thailand after an intense weather system hit the region, it said.

In Bangkok, schools were closed and authorities urged people to work from home where possible -- a call that many heeded, with roads and public transport networks noticeably quieter.

More than 80,000 people were unable to leave their homes on Monday, the interior ministry said, including residents of one apartment complex in the eastern Bang Kapi district.

"We can't go outside. The water level is so high -– it would come up to neck level for tall people," Suranee Panoh, who manages a flat in the complex, told AFP.

They have had no electricity since water rushed in early on Saturday morning, flooding the carpark and turning the central courtyard into a lake filled with floating rubbish.

"It's extremely difficult," said 32-year-old Suranee.

With no running water, residents put out plastic buckets to collect rainwater, which they used to wash.

Yanika Luangcharoen, 44, who lives there with her parents and two cats, said they have been relying on food handouts and using candles for light.

"We weren't prepared at all. We only knew it was going to rain, but there was no warning whatsoever," she told AFP reporters who visited by boat.

"I never thought I'd become a flood victim. I've never experienced anything like this," she added, saying that during devastating floods in 2011, they were not even affected.

But signs of life returned to other parts of the neighbourhood on Monday, with vendors setting up stalls in a street that has become a murky river.

Buyers glided past in boats or pushed shopping trolleys through the floodwater, while one shopper pulled along an inflated swimming pool which he used to keep his purchases dry.

- Myanmar teens killed -

Bangkok authorities declared a city-wide disaster on Saturday after almost 48 hours of heavy rain, while flooding was also reported in parts of eastern Thailand.

In neighbouring Myanmar, rescuers said heavy floods and landslides in the southern region of Tanintharyi had killed at least eight people, with up to 30 more missing.

Three of the recovered bodies were teenagers who had gathered at a local monastery on Sunday.

They were swept away by a landslide that hit their village, burying 18 buildings, according to local volunteer Hein Htet, in Launglon township.

"There are still people and villages in the danger zone with continued rainfall," he warned.

Myanmar's civil war often makes the scale of natural disasters hard for humanitarian organisations to judge, as well as complicating relief efforts.

"We are inundated not only with the scale of the flood but also with the lack of resources. This is a natural disaster in the conflict area," said Hein Htet.

- 'Up to a week' -

September is the peak of Thailand's rainy season, but many Bangkok residents said this year's floods seemed worse than previous ones.

Scientists warn the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will increase as global warming accelerates because of fossil fuel emissions.

The city is built on former marshlands and is intersected by a network of canals, many of them heavily flooded by the rains.

Thousands of residents have decamped to temporary shelters.

"I was so shocked, things happened so quickly," said Samran, a retiree whose building was flooded, asking AFP not to publish his family name.

"I have drinking water but I do not have water for my toilet," he said, saying he had to use a bucket to pull water up through the window to his second-floor apartment.

(B.Ramirez--TAG)