Do not add water…

This was one of our rented vehicle that failed to escape from the flood, after talking to the person in charge, this car was under water for about a month. I think the iPhone photo speaks for itself (total loss), luckily no one was hurt.

This is just one small car, just imagine all of the homes that have been under the flood for an even longer time? We were one of the fortunate ones, the flood did come but the water was only knee high and did not reach the actual house (much to our relief).

A huge part of the problem were the politicians, their failures to release the water (slowly) from the dam when they had the chance; allegedly one old time (and very powerful) politician refuses to open up the water gate to his province until all the rice farmers finish their harvest (my feeling is still mixed here, on the one hand I am glad (his) farmers got their harvest, but at the expense of other farmers in other provinces); their failures to control the situation, their failures to organise help for the people who needed the most, their failures to control deforestation/overbuilding in catchment areas/damming in diversion of natural waterways/urban sprawl (NYtimes.com); their political ping-pong and incompetence had cost over 700 lives!

Now there is a talk that it could happen again next year! If it does, perish the thought…

Flood Relief Operations Command (FROC): Heartbreakingly incompetence?

Since the beginning of the flood, FROC that was set up by the Government have had more complaints and criticisms than praises, I can not confirm every criticisms but the latest act of blatant stupidity have made me so angry.

FROC’s headquarter was at Don Muang Airport, this was a large scale operation, with tv studios, press areas and other essentials that all centre of operation should have. Moreover it was also a large relief centre where the people suffering from flood in the surrounding areas were fed and put up, its other main function was a depot where a major part of the donations were stocked.

One of the main complaint / accusation (I truly hope this is false), (with several pictures posted on FB as well as on the news) was that some politicians were packing these donations and putting their names or names of their organisation on it! I mean HOW LOW CAN YOU GET! These donations came from the kindness of normal citizens as well as from overseas (such as Japan), most weren’t billionaires or millionaires like these despicable politicians, they just wanted to help, why is Thailand being govern by these #%^$.






Then there were the accusation of unfairness in dispersing these donations, in that only a certain politicians have the authority to release these much needed essentials. While there were requests left right and center, but these essentials still sit in the warehouse because these politicians had nothing to gain from releasing these donations to these group of suffering people, WTF!


Sod’s law, eventually the flood came to Don Muang, so what did the FROC do? They moved of course. But being with little brain and no common sense, they decided to just up and left, the people who were relying on the relief centre were still there, more importantly part of the donations were also left behind.









The news showed pictures of donations (that was left behind), whether they were clothes, make shift toilets and all other essentials (I mean really essentials) just floating in the water! What a waste! Did the flood come like a Tsunami? NO, NO, NO, it didn’t and besides they are the FROC, people go to them to find out where the flood was coming so they should know well in advance that the flood will hit Don Muang. Or didn’t they have enough resources to move all of the donations? NO, NO, NO, come on they are (again) the FROC, essentially and literally they have the whole Army, Air-force and Navy at their disposal, but no, they just decided to leave, were there any planning? Were there any preparation? I don’t know which part of their anatomy they used to make these decisions, clearly it wasn’t their brain (do they have any?).

So far, personally I have not been affected by the flood (knock on wood), but to see these people whom we trust to guide us out of danger, are acting so foolishly is just beyond belief and heartbreakingly disappointed. I am hoping all of these information I am consuming is wrong, and that there are some really good explanations behind it, please.

In readiness for the flooding of Bangkok 2011.

We have moved into the heart of Bangkok for almost a year now, so our house on the out skirt of the city has pretty much been empty (obviously) for the same amount of time, the house sits on the very edge of a sub district named Salathammasop, which is a part of the larger district called 'Taweewattana' and that sits on the top left hand corner of Bangkok, a sneeze away from Nonthaburi Province and Nakornpathom province.

To the North of our home lay two other districts, 'Bang Bua Thong' and 'Bang Yai' (both are part of Nonthaburi Province), both have been hit hard by the flood (so my area should be next). The first floor of a colleague's house is now 50 cms under water, however if you go out onto the main road of the housing estate then the water level is chest high. How can that be that in the year of 2011 any part of Bangkok can be chest high under water! This wasn’t some freak event like a hurricane or an earthquake, I believe there were warnings, several warnings, many are saying it was just poor management by the various authorities.

Yesterday, I had to go back to the out skirt home to pick up the cot, and decided to take a short trip to the local supermarket, talking about being totally prepared, there were make shift walls, sandbags and other water stopping measures everywhere, totally putting me to shame, all I did to prepare for this flood was literally 3 extra tins of tuna, several bottled water and two dozen eggs.

This market is at least 50 to 60 cms below the road, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see this pretty hefty wall (but it was). 

People were selling life jackets and boats on the street; all bridges, even the expressway have turned into car parks, so was the U-Turn bridge near our home.

I am sincerely hoping that these people, who had no choice but to stay, will be safe and that the best case happens for them, that is somehow the water manages to miss them all.

Feeling like a Grasshopper…

I must admit that I have been a bit of a ‘Grasshopper’ so far with the advent of this horrific flood, as time passes and seeing the advancement of the unrelenting flood, together with all of the everyday essentials disappearing from the shelves, is quickly turning me into an ‘Ant’.

My main concern is clean water, with a three year old and another love of my life coming in about two weeks means clean water will be absolutely essential, so I have now started stocking water. To put things into perspective, we went to a restaurant today, and they couldn’t give us any water because they didn’t have any! All they had left was fizzy water (no brand will be mentioned here, lol).
 

That really scared the %$#* out of me, whether it was through panic buying or whatever, the result is the same if the water becomes contaminated from the flood (a very strong possibility here) there is a strong possibility that I shall not be able to find clean water in the near future and this is a good enough reason for me to also start stocking the essentials, just in case...

I wish I have become an Ant sooner than this... Well better late than never... :) Family do come first :) Personally I can live on beer for the next six months, lol.

Thailand flood: Watching Google.org Crises Response.

I never knew this service even existed, and I must think everyone of us in Thailand are watching this right now, to see the flood coming in graphical detail is quite frightening… The ground floor of a colleagues’ home is now under water, so he is now having to move into a hotel for the time being.

Looking at the map it looks like our outskirt home will be hit as well, but I am hoping that the area where our house is, is high enough to avoid the worst of the flood, nothing is certain until it hits.

http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/thailand-flood-2011.html

Everyday we are seeing it creeping closer and closer to the City Centre, nothing is certain now, Bang Yai and Bang Bon have already been hit, it is just a matter of time and the skills of the authority now.