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Thousands of Bangkok residents spent Sunday in temporary shelters after days of heavy rain flooded homes and roads across the Thai capital, forcing many to evacuate and leaving others to salvage their belongings.
Nearly 4,900 people have been moved to shelters, while about 52,000 households have been affected by the flooding, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), which has declared a disaster across the capital.
More than 330 millimetres (13 inches) of rain fell in some parts of Bangkok between Thursday and Sunday, the weather agency said.
September is the peak of Thailand’s rainy season, but residents said the flooding this year appeared particularly severe.
“Our house was underwater for about 30 hours,” office worker Kosin Nilset, 44, who lives near the Premprachakorn canal on the outskirts of Bangkok, told AFP.
“This time, the water level is higher than the 2011 flood,” he said, referring to the devastating floods that killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes across Thailand.
Kosin said his family moved their belongings to higher ground after the water rose above the canal retaining wall, but the ground floor of their home was still flooded.
“At least tap water and electricity are working,” he said while sweeping water from his house.
Floodwaters also inundated parts of eastern Bangkok, with pedestrians wading through murky water, in some places reaching knee height. Some residents used plastic tubs to float their belongings through the flooded streets.
The BMA said water levels in the city’s canal network remained high on Sunday as authorities worked to accelerate drainage. More rain was forecast for Bangkok and nearby provinces before conditions were expected to improve from Monday.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt warned residents to avoid unnecessary travel, saying several roads remained flooded.
He visited a temporary shelter at a school in Kheha Romklao on Saturday night, where about 1,000 people had reportedly been evacuated. Residents were sleeping on cots, benches and classroom floors, with some staying alongside their pets.
Hundreds of schools in Bangkok are due to close on Monday because of the flooding, while some convenience stores reported shortages of essential goods as residents stocked up.
The prime minister’s office urged people not to panic-buy supplies and warned that price gouging was a criminal offence.
For some residents, the flooding has made staying at home almost impossible.
Thidarat Silsuwan, 56, who lives alone in a partially submerged house near the Premprachakorn canal, said she had been sleeping on a table for two days.
She declined to move to a shelter as she tried to clean her home and save what belongings she could.
“I tried to lift everything up, but I gave up on large electric appliances like the refrigerator and washing machine. I guess they are broken,” she said.
