Bangkok Underwater

Oct 26, 2011 | 84

Heavy monsoon rains have been drenching Southeast Asia since mid-July, causing mudslides and widespread flooding. The deluge has now reached Bangkok, with rising water and associated problems affecting most of the city's 10 million residents. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said that parts of the capital could be inundated by up to 1.5 meters of water and remain flooded for up to a month. Around Bangkok, the second-largest airport has closed, food prices are soaring, clean water is becoming scarce, and the country is declaring a holiday from Thursday until Monday to allow people to evacuate. The Chao Phraya river is predicted to overflow its banks in the city sometime today, and authorities say that if the protective dikes fail to hold the water, all parts of Bangkok will be vulnerable to the floodwater. [42 photos]

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Residents evacuate from their flooded town, north of Bangkok, on October 25, 2011. Around 320 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, as Thailand experiences the worst flooding in 50 years with damages running as high as $6 billion. (Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad)

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Flood waters surround an industrial complex in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 20, 2011. Hundreds of factories closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi with flood waters reaching Bangkok. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images) #

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A television news reporter speaks to a camera in a waterlogged street near the Chao Praya river in Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. Thailand's premier warned nervous Bangkok citizens that incoming floods could last for four weeks, as waters inched nearer the city center. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Storm clouds gather over a village in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 14, 2011. (Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom) #

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Workers repair a collapsed canal embankment in the flooded Pathum Thani province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 18, 2011. (Reuters/Sukree Sukplang) #

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A woman holds her child as she wades through a flooded street near Mahathat temple in Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. (Reuters/Kerek Wongsa) #

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Thai Airways Airbus A300 airplanes sit parked on the flooded tarmac at Don Muang airport in Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. The planes' landing gear has been wrapped in protective plastic. (Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad) #

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Thai Dhammakaya monks and volunteers work to fortify the flood gate and barrage, made of sandbags and pipes, at Klong Rapi Pat, on October 23, 2011 in Klong Luang on the outskirts of Bangkok. The flood gate, approximately 8km long at Klong Rapi Pat, is one of the most critical of the last fortifications before the flood waters flow into the inner city of Bangkok. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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Flood victims evacuate an inundated area in a truck in Bangkok, on October 26, 2011 (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) #

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A Thai girl clutches her belongings as she waits for some help to cross floodwater as people leave flooded areas in Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) #

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A worker watches as water is pumped out of a canal in Pathum Thani province, a suburb of Bangkok, on October 19, 2011. (Reuters/Sukree Sukplang) #

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An aerial view of treetops and their reflections in a flooded area in Pathum Thani province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 14, 2011. (Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom) #

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People paddle toward food dropped by a Thai army helicopter to their village isolated by floods in Ayutthaya province near Bangkok, on October 25, 2011. (Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha) #

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A woman rests on a mattress after she was evacuated from an area affected by the floods at the collective shelter at Sports Science Center in Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. (Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom) #

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A flooded residential area in the suburbs of Bangkok, on October 25, 2011. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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A rat searches for an escape route from of a piece of floating debris in Pathum Thani on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 22, 2011. Hundreds of factories closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi as the waters come closer to Bangkok. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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Statues of Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar, outside a flooded McDonald's restaurant in Bangkok, on October 24, 2011. Millions of people in the Thai capital nervously prepared for the advancing and seemingly unstoppable flood waters after a fresh warning for residents to evacuate certain danger zones. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images) #

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People row their belongings through floodwaters during an evacuation from a garbage-strewn flooded market in Bangkok, on October 24, 2011. (Reuters/Sukree Sukplang) #

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Buddha statues, covered in plastic to protect them from the floodwaters in Bangkok, on October 24, 2011. (Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad) #

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A resident drags his belongings through the floodwaters as he evacuates Bangkok on October 24, 2011. (Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad) #

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Englada, the daughter of Thawatcha Busabim, is carried by a relative during Thawatcha's funeral procession at the Wat Preak Prachkor temple in Pathum Thani province, a suburb of Bangkok, on October 19, 2011. Thawatcha, 30, was electrocuted when he tried to use an electric appliance at his flooded home in Pathum Thani. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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Thai Dhammakaya monks push a truck, stuck in mud, as they work to fortify the flood gate at Khlong Rapi Pat on October 25, 2011 in Khlong Luang on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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A cat drinks from a walkway in a flooded neighborhood in central Bangkok, on October 23, 2011. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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Floodwaters stretch to the horizon on October 20, 2011 on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images) #

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A man paddles his boat through flooded suburbs of Bangkok, on October 25, 2011. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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A family floats back to their house on a handmade raft in Klong Luang on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, on October 23, 2011. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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A man pushes a car through deep water on a flooded street in Bangbuathong, Thailand, on on October 24, 2011. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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Buddhist monks splash each other as floods continue to hit Pathum Thani province on October 14, 2011, north of Bangkok, Thailand. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images) #

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Partially-submerged homes in the hard-hit province of Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok, on October 16, 2011. (Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A woman holds her dog, waiting for transport along the newly flooded streets near the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, on October 25, 2011. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

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A Buddhist monk walks in floodwaters at a temple in Bangkok's historic center on October 26, 2011. (Christophe Archambailt/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A man walks with fish which he caught along the swollen Prapa Canal in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) #

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Seen in a mirror, a Thai mahout rides his elephant on a flooded street in Ayutthaya province, on October 14, 2011. (Reuters/Sukree Sukplang) #

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Children play in water as floods advance in their neighborhood at Sai Mai district in Bangkok, on October 22, 2011. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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Cars are parked on a highway overpass to avoid floods in Ayutthaya province near Bangkok, on October 25, 2011. (Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha) #

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A dog barks as another looks on while stranded at a fire station surrounded by flood waters in Pathum Thani on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 22, 2011. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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A man sleeps on the bench at a flooded pier at the Chao Praya river in central Bangkok, on October 16, 2011. Relief workers reinforced barriers on Sunday to help defend Thailand's capital, Bangkok, from the country's worst floods in half a century and efforts were stepped up to protect a huge industrial estate to the city's north. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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A boy holds aloft banknotes to keep them dry while he swims during the flood in Nonthaburi province, suburban Bangkok, on October 15, 2011. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Businesswomen make their way through the floodwater as it advances into central Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

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Residents sit on a bridge and hold homemade spearguns while looking for fish in the rising water on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong) #

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Flood victims make their way through the high waters along the flooded streets in Rangsit on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 24, 2011. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

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A woman hangs onto a street sign in chest deep water along the flooded streets in Rangsit on the outskirts of Bangkok, on October 24, 2011. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/10/bangkok-underwater/100178/

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