Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Flood situation update

It has now been almost a week since my last post on the flood which has inundated some parts of Thailand in the recent weeks.

Central Bangkok is still okay for now and from where I am, it does seem like the situation on the outskirts of Bangkok is getting a little bit out of control.

One of my colleagues who has been locked away at home in the past week, finally made a decision to abandon her home with her husband, her 2 year old boy and 5 dogs in tow and turned up at the office today. She told me her story on how they decided to leave their home at 4 am in the morning, and after packing the essentials, they finally made it out to safe grounds after more than an hour of battling through a waist-level flood in their 4WD onto the main road which was only about 2 km away from their home. She said the water all around was just black! And that it was a matter of making it out alive or die trying.

I cannot imagine how scary that must have felt, yet my heart swelled at how brave she has been to go through the ordeal. I could see the sadness and the defeat she must have felt in her eyes, and after telling me her story, she broke into tears...and all I could do was just tell her that what matters is that her whole family is now safe. With a lump in my throat, whether she needed it or not and at the risk of invading her personal space, I could only offer her a comfort hug.

How my heart ached...

As of this afternoon, Silver Bullet's office which is currently located in the outskirts of Bangkok has been officially closed till further notice. He was literally being kicked out of his office at about 2pm today as the warning of water level rising rapidly became more urgent. Still, it took him more than 2 and half hours to get home as cars jammed-pack the roads.

I still do not have a sense as to how bad it will affect our area, given the confusion of information circulated by the government. From what I heard, the flood in Central Bangkok is no longer a matter of "if", but '"when". I cannot imagine the predicament of those who have been stuck at home for weeks on end with nowhere to go, and seeing the water level rising day after day right in front of their eyes. Below are some images from Silver Bullet's colleague home surrounded by insane amount of water...


It is a very heart-breaking sight...

As I am writing this blog post, the expressway next to our apartment building is actually rather quiet. The silence is eerie.

2 comments:

Helen said...

Its hard to know exactly whats happening in downtown Bangkok, news reports are very mixed. Stay safe and dry.

The Sleeping Dragon said...

Yeah...VERY mixed report indeed. Thanks Helen! :) x.