Flooding fears loom large for Bangkok residents
Baku, October 21 (AZERTAC). The threat has loomed large over this giant metropolis for weeks: Floodwaters could rapidly swamp glitzy downtown Bangkok, ruining treasured ancient palaces and chic boutiques on skyscraper-lined avenues in the heart of the Thai economy.
The floods haven`t come, but the sense of imminent doom is growing by the day, seeping in through worried conversations, school closings and emptied store shelves. One measure of the fear: the protective walls of sandbags scattered across the city`s canals, homes and shop-fronts are expanding in number and height daily.
Many Bangkokians are girding for the worst after a week of mixed government messages that have failed to answer their most pressing question: Will the capital succumb to the worst floods to strike Thailand in half a century?
"The water is coming, it`s inevitable," said Oraphin Jungkasemsuk, a 40-year-old employee of Bangkok Bank`s headquarters. Its outer wall is protected by a six-foot-high (two-meter-high) wall of sandbags wrapped in thin plastic sheeting.
"They are fighting a massive pool of water. They cannot control it anymore," Oraphin said. "There are barriers, but it can come into the city from any direction, even up through the drains."
A long season of monsoon rains and storms has wasted a vast swath of Asia this year, killing 745 people — a quarter of them children — in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines, according to the United Nations.
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